Deepfakes, Cybersecurity, and the Fragile Chain of Trust in Public Institutions

Deepfakes have been widely discussed as a media ethics issue, a free speech dilemma, or a potential threat to democratic institutions. This paper argues that deepfakes should also be understood as a cybersecurity problem, because they exploit the same trust relationships that underpin secure systems and public governance. Deepfakes are not merely “fake videos”, they are tools for identity manipulation that can bypass technical defenses and disrupt decision-making, public communication, and institutional legitimacy. The paper examines how deepfakes intersect with existing legal frameworks, including data protection, defamation, broadcast regulation, and cyber incident response, and proposes that public institutions should treat synthetic media as an emerging risk within cybersecurity governance.