Deep fakes are no longer fiction: The new frontline in protecting brand trust
Patrice Pandeleos, managing director of Seven Communications, explains why deep fakes aren't so fake anymore - and how they can do real damage.
Last week, the NSW Government introduced landmark legislation to criminalise sexually explicit deepfakes – a clear signal that manipulated media is no longer a fringe issue, but a front-and-centre societal threat. The move marks one of the toughest stances yet by lawmakers, and should be a wake-up call for brands: if the law is adapting to the threat, your crisis response strategy should be too.
If your team isn’t ready for manipulated media, you’re putting your brand’s reputation in the firing line. Deepfakes aren’t some sci-fi menace parked on a distant horizon anymore – they’re here, they’re multiplying, and they move faster than the truth can catch them
This threat isn’t just theoretical – it’s now shaping law. The government’s decisive action is a rare and urgent admission: deepfakes are real, dangerous, and intolerable. Brands should take exactly the same view, because hesitation in this fight isn’t measured in minutes; it’s measured in the distance between survival and collapse.
Deepfakes are getting more realistic
Fake videos, real damage
The danger of deepfakes isn’t in flawless realism, it’s in being just convincing enough to pass the pub test. A blurred frame, a slightly off lip-sync, a tinny audio clip? All irrelevant once the viewer decides it’s “proof.” In fact, the urge to share something shocking or “funny” with friends or colleagues often helps these fakes spread faster than fact-checks ever could. By the time your counter-evidence is ready, the verdict has already been delivered – at that point, you’re not fighting a rumour, you’re fighting a belief.
They can be created in hours, launched from anywhere, and metastasised through social feeds before your team even knows they exist. They’re cheap to make, brutal to contain, and their impact is gut-level. Just a couple months ago, an NRL presenter from Sydney was targeted with a non-consensual, sexually explicit deepfake that tore through anonymous forums – a vile, very public reminder that even familiar, trusted faces can be weaponised overnight.
Too many leaders still cling to the fairy tale that truth will save them, when truth is useless if it shows up after the horse has bolted. Once trust is gone, no press release, fact-check, or slickly worded rebuttal will stitch it back together.
Deepfakes do not wait – why should your crisis plan?
Crisis plans written for yesterday’s threats are worthless against today’s speed of attack. If you don’t already have detection systems, rehearsed escalation playbooks, and decision-makers ready to act without hesitation, you’re not managing a crisis – you’re chasing one that’s already sprinted past you.
Believing your brand is too small, too respected, or too niche to be targeted is delusional. The tools are everywhere, the skills are common, and the motives are endless (be it revenge, politics, profit, or plain chaos). Not preparing isn’t cautious; it’s corporate malpractice.
Patrice Pandeleos
When fake goes viral, your silence is complicity
A convincing fake can be generated on a home laptop and detonated online in less time than it takes you to draft a statement. Delaying a response isn’t measured – it’s surrender. Where silence remains, the public will write your story for you: you didn’t know, or you didn’t care (either way, you lose.)
The government’s crackdown on sexually explicit deepfakes is a blaring siren that this is not a passing tech fad. Lawmakers see the velocity and the scale, and the brands that don’t are effectively writing their own reputational obituary. If your team fails to detect, decide, and hit back before the fake outruns the truth, you’re not merely unprepared – you’re already defeated.
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