  This article examines public exposure to and perceptions of deepfakes based
on insights from a nationally representative survey of 1403 UK adults. The
survey is one of the first of its kind since recent improvements in deepfake
technology and widespread adoption of political deepfakes. The findings reveal
three key insights. First, on average, 15% of people report exposure to harmful
deepfakes, including deepfake pornography, deepfake frauds/scams and other
potentially harmful deepfakes such as those that spread health/religious
misinformation/propaganda. In terms of common targets, exposure to deepfakes
featuring celebrities was 50.2%, whereas those featuring politicians was 34.1%.
And 5.7% of respondents recall exposure to a selection of high profile
political deepfakes in the UK. Second, while exposure to harmful deepfakes was
relatively low, awareness of and fears about deepfakes were high (and women
were significantly more likely to report experiencing such fears than men). As
with fears, general concerns about the spread of deepfakes were also high;
90.4% of the respondents were either very concerned or somewhat concerned about
this issue. Most respondents (at least 91.8%) were concerned that deepfakes
could add to online child sexual abuse material, increase distrust in
information and manipulate public opinion. Third, while awareness about
deepfakes was high, usage of deepfake tools was relatively low (8%). Most
respondents were not confident about their detection abilities and were
trustful of audiovisual content online. Our work highlights how the problem of
deepfakes has become embedded in public consciousness in just a few years; it
also highlights the need for media literacy programmes and other policy
interventions to address the spread of harmful deepfakes.
