Deepfakes: regulatory challenges for the synthetic society

With the rise of deepfakes and synthetic media, the question as to what is real and what is not will become increasingly important and politized. Deepfakes can be used to spread fake news, influence elections, introduce highly realistic fake evidence in courts and make fake porno movies. Each of these applications potentially has a big impact on society, social relationships, democracy and the rule of law. The question this article shall assess is whether the current regulatory regime suffices to address these potential harms and if not, which additional rules and principles should be adopted. It will discuss several potential amendments to the privacy and data protection regime, limitations to the freedom of expression and ex ante rules on the distribution of use of deepfake-technologies.