How Good Are You at Spotting Deepfake Memes?

If 2020s internet culture had a mascot, it wouldn’t be a cat or a frog. It would be a bewildered face superimposed on another person’s body, lip-syncing audio from a political debate, and doing the dance they need to for Taylor Swift’s new song.

In recent years, deepfake memes have been a social media sensation, putting well-known faces in ridiculous situations. They are remixing voices for parodies and fostering a new kind of AI-powered entertainment. Shock value, surprise, and absurdity are what make memes so popular. A 2024 MIT study found that deepfake memes and other AI-generated comedy content had 70% higher engagement rates than conventional image-based memes.

From amusing AI-generated celebrity face swaps to creepy deepfake voice memes and realistic deepfake porn memes, the truth is no more than fiction. The worst part is that this AI-generated content is not merely another infotainment but a real tool of harassment and manipulation. They are evolving into tools for manipulation, harassment, and disinformation.

So, before we post another viral video of Obama rapping Eminem, it’s high time we decipher the phenomenon of AI deepfake memes: the good, the bad, and the outrageously fake.

What Are Deepfake Memes?

According to Deeptrace Labs, there are over 145,000 deepfake videos on the internet, with almost 30% of them being made or reshared in meme format.

Deepfake memes are funny or satirical online content that employs AI-powered technologies to exchange faces, edit voices, or change scenes within videos and photos, and transform them into meme material. They are the cunning progeny of internet culture and artificial intelligence. With the help of deepfake learning, these digitally altered photos and videos have revolutionized meme culture by bringing shock, humor, and occasionally controversy into our new feeds.

Beneath the viral giggles, however, is a potent instrument capable of spreading false information, distorting reality, and even causing actual harm.

The Rising AI Deepfake Meme Culture

The intersection of viral meme culture and accessible AI tools has created a deepfake meme explosion. Now, anyone can use free apps to generate deepfake videos in seconds, placing themselves in movie clips, song videos, or popular TikTok.

For example, a TikTok account called @DeepTomCruise created incredibly lifelike videos of Tom Cruise using deepfake technology. The videos were so realistic that millions of users believed he joined the platform. These became viral not because of fraud, but because they were ridiculously believable.

How Deepfake Memes Spread Like Digital Wildfire?

Memes tend to go viral, and AI-created content makes them juicier, flashier, and spookier. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Twitter (X) have turned into incubators for deepfake memes, garnering millions of views in a matter of hours.

Deepfake memes work because they trick what we are biologically wired to trust: faces and voices. When those get modified, even for humor, our brains stall. That pause is the point where misinformation and manipulation come in.

In the incorrect context, deepfake memes can be used maliciously to:

• Harass others with AI-created fake videos
• Undermine the trust in biometric-based platforms

Political Disinformation, Voice Hoaxes and Porn Memes: When Deepfakes Cross the Line 

Although some deepfake memes are benign and satirical, others are not. As AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and widely available, there’s been a dramatic rise in harmful deepfake memes, especially in the areas of pornography and political propaganda. These types may vary in form, but all represent serious social, ethical, and legal issues.

• Political Deepfake Memes

When deepfakes move into the political landscape, the implications are much more than  being humorous. Political deepfake memes tend to be created to propagate false information, shift public sentiment, or ruin reputations. These memes are especially hazardous when there is political instability in a nation or during delicate events such as elections.

According to MIT Technology Review, political deepfake content is 70% more likely to be shared compared to regular misinformation.

• Deepfake Porn Memes 

The most distressing trend is the increase in deepfake porn memes, where the faces of women, commonly celebrities or influencers, are transposed onto explicit videos without their permission. Shared on meme pages, forums, and private groups, such clips are usually preceded by a label funny edits but are, in fact, a type of digital sexual violence. 

According to the Brookings Institution, 96% of deepfake content on the internet is pornographic, with women being the target victims.

Gal Gadot’s face was notoriously used in a deepfake adult video that spread all over. Although the video was artificial, the emotional and reputational harm was too real.

The Legal Environment Concerning Deepfake Memes

As deepfakes start to permeate more of society, nations are gradually passing legislation to govern their application, particularly regarding non-consensual porn, election interference, and impersonation. The most prominent legal frameworks related to it are: the United States, California, and Texas prohibit deepfake pornography and fake political content. The European Union, EU AI Act, categorizes deepfakes as high-risk, aiming for rigorous transparency obligations.

No deepfake laws stand alone, yet their makers can be legally pursued under cybercrime, defamation, and obscenity laws such as India’s IT Act and Pakistan’s PECA 2016.

Deepfake Detectors: Using AI to Combat  AI

Fortunately, as the issue expands, so does the solution. Sophisticated deepfake detectors are now being utilized by platforms and organizations to detect and mark synthetic media before damage is done. Facia’s AI-powered detection SDKs provide robust and real-time solutions in this regard.

For example, Facia’s deepfake detection identified a stream of manipulated celebrity clips that were quickly going viral on social media sites, such as TikTok and Instagram reels. Employing AI algorithms that examine facial inconsistencies, lip-sync mistakes, and metadata discrepancies, the software altered moderators before the videos could result in reputational damage or propagate disinformation. This anticipatory detection prevents platforms from letting go of viral fake content and helps safeguard brands and people alike.

With Facia, Detect Smarter, Laugh Smarter

Deepfake memes can begin innocently as entertainment, but they can rapidly be used in manipulation, harassment, and disinformation. With increasing realism in AI-generated media, the border between having fun and fraud continues to blur, making verification of content more essential than ever before. That’s where Facia comes in.

With Facia’s cutting-edge off-site deepfake detection, AI-manipulated videos and synthetic media are flagged in real-time, and fake media never gets to compromise authenticity. It’s the online protection for a world where misinformation travels quickly.

Using advanced facial recognition and deepfake detection tech, Facia equips media platforms, businesses, and public figures with the ability to identify doctored content in real-time. From marking a pornographic deepfake to authenticating a political video, or unmasking a trending voice meme, Facia ensures the content that makes us laugh doesn’t cost someone else a laugh.