Deepfakes Launder Conspiracies Into Politics

A fabricated video of a national leader endorsing 'medbeds' helped move a fringe health‑tech conspiracy into mainstream conversation. Leader‑endorsement deepfakes short‑circuit normal credibility checks by mimicking the most authoritative possible messenger and creating false policy expectations. — If deepfakes can agenda‑set by simulating elite endorsements, democracies need authentication norms and rapid debunk pipelines to prevent synthetic promises from steering public debate.