Fake News, Disinformation, and Deepfakes: Leveraging Distributed Ledger Technologies and Blockchain to Combat Digital Deception and Counterfeit Reality

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Authors: Paula Fraga-Lamas, Tiago M. Fernández-Caramés

Published: 2019-04-10 18:42:45+00:00

Comment: Accepted version of IT Professional journal article

Journal Ref: Published in: IT Professional ( Volume: 22, Issue: 2, 01 March-April 2020)

AI Summary

This overview explores the potential of Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) and blockchain to combat digital deception, including deepfakes and fake news. It reviews current initiatives, identifies challenges, and provides recommendations for future research on strengthening resilience against cyber-threats in online media. DLTs guarantee data provenance, authenticity, and traceability through transparent, immutable, and verifiable records.

Abstract

The rise of ubiquitous deepfakes, misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and post-truth, often referred to as fake news, raises concerns over the role of Internet and social media in modern democratic societies. Due to its rapid and widespread diffusion, digital deception has not only an individual or societal cost (e.g., to hamper the integrity of elections), but it can lead to significant economic losses (e.g., to affect stock market performance) or to risks to national security. Blockchain and other Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) guarantee the provenance, authenticity and traceability of data by providing a transparent, immutable and verifiable record of transactions while creating a peer-to-peer secure platform for storing and exchanging information. This overview aims to explore the potential of DLTs and blockchain to combat digital deception, reviewing initiatives that are currently under development and identifying their main current challenges. Moreover, some recommendations are enumerated to guide future researchers on issues that will have to be tackled to face fake news, disinformation and deepfakes, as an integral part of strengthening the resilience against cyber-threats on today's online media.

Key findings
The paper finds that DLTs can effectively guarantee provenance, consensus, and traceability, offering a robust platform for ensuring authenticity and auditing digital content, thereby enhancing accountability and combating counterfeit reality. Despite existing technological and practical limitations, DLTs provide crucial trust mechanisms that are highly suitable for tackling digital deception. Future research should focus on developing joint AI and DLT solutions for a more comprehensive approach to digital deception.
Approach
The authors propose leveraging Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) and blockchain to combat digital deception by providing transparent, immutable, and verifiable records of transactions. This approach aims to guarantee the provenance, authenticity, and traceability of data, thereby creating a secure peer-to-peer platform for storing and exchanging information and making it harder to spread false content. They discuss various DLT-based applications such as decentralized content moderation, trustworthiness checkers, reputation systems, and provenance services.
Datasets
UNKNOWN
Model(s)
UNKNOWN
Author countries
Spain
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