Deepfake: The Seizure of Perception in the Age of Digital Information Warfare
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Abstract
This article examines deepfakes as a cultural weapon capable of seizing social perception through the manipulation of time and credibility within the contemporary information battlefield. In recent years, deepfake technologies have increasingly been used to spread disinformation, generate public confusion, and undermine trust in public figures and institutions in the digital media environment. Using an anthropological framework of power and symbolic capital, the study employs a qualitative methodology through document analysis, academic research, and case studies of the fake video of President Volodymyr Zelensky and the voice-cloning incident involving U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. These two cases illustrate distinct forms of deepfake deployment: the Zelensky video represents visual and audiovisual fabrication that stages a political event that never occurred, while the Rubio case involves voice cloning that impersonates a political actor in order to intervene in political communication. The analysis reveals that the speed of dissemination and the symbolic credibility attached to
individuals and platforms constitute strategic resources that enable deepfakes to construct temporary truths with greater influence than
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