The digital age has brought with it both progress and peril.
While technology has made communication faster and more convenient, it has also opened the floodgates to falsehoods and deception.
Social media, particularly Facebook, has become a breeding ground for misleading information that shapes the thoughts and decisions of millions of users.
Fake news and the abuse of artificial intelligence (AI) are now threatening to create a misguided and misinformed generation.
Every day, people of all ages, scroll through their phones and computers, consuming content that often lacks authenticity.
Some individuals, young and old alike, take pride in spreading lies and false stories, either for attention, money or the simple thrill of misleading others.
This has become a worrying trend because misinformation, once shared, spreads faster than the truth. The more people believe what they see online without verifying it, the more society drifts away from reality.
AI-generated videos and images on Facebook and other social media platforms are compromising genuine content and user trust. Advanced AI tools, particularly deepfake technology, can now create highly realistic fake videos and images.
These are so convincing that even trained eyes and automated systems struggle to tell the difference between what is real and what is fabricated.
Deepfake technology uses AI to create synthetic or falsified images, videos or recordings. A deepfake is an artificial creation that has been manipulated to make it appear as if someone is saying or doing something they never did.
It can also make it look like a person was present in a place where they were not or dressed in a way they never were. The results are often so authentic looking that many people fall for them without a second thought.
AI can now generate an image that looks so real that it can fool even the most cautious observer. This has opened the door to dangerous uses, including harassment, fraud and defamation.
Deepfakes and misinformation have devastating consequences for society. A misinformed society makes poor decisions, supports wrong causes and loses faith in institutions. When people believe lies, they act on them, often with harmful results. Misinformation can fuel hatred, divide communities and destroy reputations. It can make people distrust the media, the government and even one another.
When fake news was circulated during the civil unrest, some emaSwati believed these stories and formed opinions based on them. This is one of the reasons we have a misguided youth today, a generation being fed with lies and distortions. It appears we have regressed to the old days when our parents told us that certain leaders possessed supernatural powers, capable of transforming into cats or entering the trunk of a tree. We were also told that one prominent leader once astonished another by disappearing into a cloud.
These were fairy tales, which have now evolved into fake news and deepfakes.
The rise of fake news and deepfakes highlights the challenges surrounding the authenticity of digital media. This discrepancy reaffirms the enduring importance of the printed copy in the modern era. The limitations of the digital space have sustained the relevance of print media. Indeed, many people have migrated to digital platforms, only to be disappointed by falsehoods and misleading content.
In a paper titled “Fake News & Digital Media Literacy: Deepfakes and AI-Fabricated Images and Videos”, Central Methodist University notes that advancements in artificial intelligence technology will heighten the dangers associated with this form of misinformation. When combined with the rapid spread of information on social media, the university observes, deepfakes can swiftly produce economic, social and political consequences.
The institution cites the example of a fabricated image of an explosion near the Pentagon, which circulated on social media in early 2023 and briefly caused turmoil in the stock market.
Although the quality and realism of deepfakes continue to advance, fake videos and images can often be detected by carefully examining imperfections and contextual indicators.
However, it must be acknowledged that many of us still fall for such deceptions, unless what is depicted is clearly implausible. The creators of fake news often build castles in the air and discerning individuals can usually identify such falsehoods from the outset.
According to New Jersey law firm Saiber LLC, deepfakes are not just tools for spreading false information, they are also being used to create explicit or pornographic material without consent. The attorneys explain that there are applications that can ‘nudify’ an image, turning an innocent picture into a fake pornographic one. Worse still, AI can be used to create entire pornographic videos using the image of a person who was never present during the filming.
This kind of abuse has destroyed reputations, relationships and families. In several countries, marriages and love relationships have been tested or even ended because of deepfakes. For example, in India, a man divorced his wife after seeing a deepfake video that appeared to show her in a compromising situation. Later, it was discovered that the video was fake, but by then, the damage was done. In the United States, several celebrities and ordinary women have had their faces superimposed onto explicit videos, causing emotional trauma and public embarrassment.
In Europe, a British woman filed a lawsuit after her ex-partner used deepfake technology to create intimate videos of her and spread them online. These cases show how deepfakes can destroy trust between partners, leading to heartbreak, shame and sometimes violence.
In Africa, the situation is no different. In Nigeria and South Africa, deepfake videos have been used to spread political lies and personal scandals. In one case, a deepfake video showing a well-known South African politician in a compromising act circulated widely before an election, only to be proven false later. By then, the public’s perception of the politician had already been damaged. In Kenya, a deepfake was used to falsely accuse a journalist of corruption, leading to threats and job loss. These examples show that deepfakes are not only a threat to individuals, but also to democracy and social stability.
In homes across the world, children are unknowingly becoming victims and carriers of misinformation. Out of curiosity or excitement, they often come home from school eager to share sensational stories they have seen online, not realising that they are spreading lies. In doing so, they grow up as conduits of falsehood, shaping a future generation that struggles to separate truth from fiction.
The most immediate impact of deepfakes and fake news is the erosion of public trust in digital media. When people can no longer trust what they see and hear online, the reliability of all content, including genuine information, is undermined. This creates confusion and weakens social cohesion.
In some countries, businesses have lost millions of dollars after employees were tricked by deepfake video calls that appeared to come from company executives.
AI fakes can spread false narratives with alarming speed, posing serious risks to individuals and entire societies. They can be used to interfere with elections, manipulate public opinion and incite violence. Soon, courts may have to deal with cases where election results were influenced or faked using AI-generated content. This would mark a dangerous turning point for democracy.
Technicians and digital experts warn that AI is being used to create non-consensual intimate imagery, also known as deepfake pornography. This form of image-based abuse disproportionately targets women, causing deep emotional harm and violating their privacy. Men who are prone to jealousy or violence may be misled by such fake content, leading to domestic disputes or even physical assaults.
The saying ‘AI can put your wife in bed with Jerome’ is no longer a joke but a real possibility.
The technology behind deepfakes has become so advanced that even sophisticated detection systems struggle to identify them consistently. This means anyone can become a victim and identifying the culprit is often difficult.
It is now the responsibility of social media platforms like Facebook to identify and act against those who flood the digital space with harmful and misleading content. Facebook has made some progress, such as hiding video view counts from the public since October 2024, to reduce the spread of viral misinformation.
The company also uses AI in its content review process to detect and remove manipulated media. However, the effectiveness of these measures varies as many fake videos still slip through the cracks.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has policies against manipulated media and allows users to report image-based abuse through its eSafety system or directly via Facebook Help.
Despite these efforts, people continue to produce and share misleading AI-generated videos and fake news.
Therefore, the use of deepfakes to perpetuate misinformation must be condemned in the strongest terms. Technology should be used to build societies, not to destroy them. Governments, social media companies, and individuals all have a role to play in curbing the misuse of AI. Laws must be strengthened to punish offenders and awareness campaigns should educate people about the dangers of fake content.
For instance, in Europe and the United States, authorities are already taking steps to regulate deepfakes. The European Union has proposed strict laws requiring digital platforms to label AI-generated content clearly. In the United States, some States have introduced laws making it illegal to create or share deepfakes without consent, especially those of a sexual or defamatory nature. In Africa, countries like Kenya and South Africa are beginning to discuss similar measures, though enforcement remains weak.
Ultimately, technology is only as good or bad as the people who use it. AI can be a powerful tool for creativity, education and progress, but when used irresponsibly, it becomes a weapon of deception.
We must all learn to think critically, verify information before sharing it and hold accountable those who misuse technology for harm.
If we fail to do so, we risk raising a generation that cannot tell truth from lies, fact from fiction or good from evil. A society built on misinformation is a society built on sand and sooner or later, it will collapse.
I thank you.
While technology has made communication faster and more convenient, it has also opened the floodgates to falsehoods and deception.