Dijital Enformasyon Çağında Sentetik Kitle Manipülasyonu: Deepfake (Derin Sahtelik) Ürünleri
Synthetic Mass Manipulation In The Age Of Digital Information: Deepfake Products

Author(s): Serdar Kuzey Yıldız
Subject(s): Media studies, ICT Information and Communications Technologies
Published by: Özgür Yayın Dağıtım Ltd. Şti.
Keywords: deepfake; digital information; mass manipulation;
Summary/Abstract: Communication science transformed by new media has gained new forms and tools. But this transformation has not always yielded positive results. Despite all its advantages, advanced technology frequently comes to the fore with the ethical debates. With the post-truth era, which witnessed groundbreaking achievements at all stages from the production to distribution of information, communication actions have settled on a different plane; new concepts and discussions have emerged in the literature. The concept of “deepfake” has also turned into an area where current debates were experienced. It is seen that deepfake products, based on deep learning works with artificial neural networks, are used for such purposes like distorting reality, spreading disinformation, and oftenly to assassinate characters of social figures, political leaders or popular culture icons. It is among the claims that deepfakes are able to overshadow the credibility of news media in the age of digital information. In this study, in which a comprehensive review of literature was used within the framework of descriptive analysis method, the conceptual background of deepfake technology, its use in digital spaces, its potential threats and possibilities were tried to be explained with current statistics and facts. Another motivation of the study is to try to contribute to the limited number of studies on this concept in the Turkish literature with a comprehensive approach. As a result of the research, it was concluded that deepfakes had started a new controversy on mankind’s dilemma with technology. In addition, it has been seen that reasonable audit and control mechanisms, an eligible media literacy education and counter-technologies on many sensitive topics such as privacy, democracy, politics and national security are needed to be protected from the possible threats of the concept.

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