Controlling the Narrative in the Age of Deepfakes

In early 2024, a robocall impersonating Joe Biden's voice circulated during the US presidential elections. The widely reported incident was a stark example of how easily a fabricated but convincing voice recording, image or video can now be produced. It was also a warning sign for anyone involved in reputation management and crisis communications.

Connectivity and the evolution of technology are changing corporate communications as a whole, and crisis communications in particular.

20 years ago, any discussion about crisis communications inevitably took into account the news cycle as a key part of crisis preparedness and spokesperson training. At that time, there was a roughly 12-hour schedule for the news: the evening news on TV and the newspapers in the morning.

All that changed in the 2010s as smartphones spread and the rise of social media and messaging apps allowed people to share information instantly. That is to say nothing of user-generated content; whereas news footage had previously always been professional-grade quality, grainy videos captured by passersby were now not only be circulated on social networks but also broadcast by news channels as they competed for exclusivity.

The era of always-on connectivity and instant information had arrived, reshaping crisis communications and corporate reputation management. The release of information was no longer in the hands of companies, and crisis communications teams had to be ever more vigilant and nimble to stay on top of the narrative.

Fast forward a few years and the game has changed once again with the rise of AI. As recently as 4-5 years ago, a statement issued by a company could reliably be taken as fact. Now, as the Joe Biden robocall illustrates, that assumption no longer holds. And it is not only companies that are affected, but celebrities, politicians and even ordinary people.

This creates new challenges for crisis communications. Companies can release information that is verified and marked as authenticated, which gives audiences a clear source of truth to check against. Extra efforts will need to be taken to ensure the accuracy of the information in the public domain and to take down false information. But even with all that in place, once a fabricated version is already circulating, how do you convince a customer who's been exposed to it that your version of the story is the truth? And how do you stop it spreading further in private chat groups?

And what happens when influencers or prominent voices jump on board? Take the false narrative that sunblock causes skin cancer as a case in point. It's been circulating for years and has been pushed by social media influencers and users with high reach. The narrative persists despite corrective information shared by cosmetics companies, dermatologists, fact-checkers and numerous media outlets.

It feels like an impossible task, yet there are things that companies and their communications teams can do.

For starters, build verification into everyday communications, not just crisis response. That means authenticated channels, consistent spokespeople and provenance tools like C2PA Content Credentials. These give audiences something to check against when a fake surfaces, but will only help if they are already in place before any fabricated content emerges.

That said, provenance tools in and of themselves are not proof. Content Credentials can show where a file came from and how it was edited, but they can't confirm on their own that the content is real. Article 50 of the EU AI Act, in force since 2 August 2026, has begun to formalise disclosure obligations for AI-generated content, although this will not prevent malicious actors from circulating fabricated content.

Monitoring and listening also need to be proactively adapted. Run-of-the-mill brand-mention tracking is no longer enough, since standard set-ups aren't built to catch impersonation, fabricated statements or fake corporate accounts.

At the same time, clear escalation routes need to be set up for anything flagged by the listening and monitoring. Suspected content needs to be captured and saved, including URLs, time-stamps and, if possible, copies of the file. This content is then reported and analysed.

However, once something is confirmed as suspect, communications around the issue should run in parallel with the full investigation to get ahead of the story and manage the narrative. Waiting for full forensic certainty before saying anything hands the initiative over to the bad actor behind the fake. As with traditional crisis communications best practice, a short holding statement should be issued: confirm what is circulating, emphasize that it did not come from the company and let the public know where information official updates will be posted. This can then be built upon as more information becomes available and the picture becomes clearer.

Make sure to brief employees about the issue before they hear it from somewhere else. Staff who learn about a fake video from a customer before they hear from their own company will only make the situation worse. Equip staff with the information and tools to understand what happened and to know how to distinguish genuine from fake content.

Test your response protocol before you need it. Role-play a fabricated content scenario, such as a fake video or a cloned executive voice message. This is no different from standard crisis communications preparations, where a tabletop exercise will identify gaps while also reinforcing roles and responsibilities across the communications organisation and other stakeholders such as IT and management.

None of this makes a fabricated narrative fully containable once it's already circulating, especially once it's moved into private channels that sit outside any monitoring system. The aim is to respond as quickly as possible with the company's narrative and to make the "true" version easier to find than the false one. That can only come from mapping out potential risks, remaining vigilant, putting response protocols in place and ensuring the system works under pressure.

Fares Ghneim
Stratetic Communications & Corporate Affairs

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Ground Floor, Buiding 8

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