However, it is not only use cases in which false facts are presented that are disturbing – deepfakes also turn actually true facts into possible fakes. For example, in 2019, the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo, delivered his traditional New Year’s address, but to many Gabon citizens, the speech seemed stilted, somehow different from usual could explain strange behavior. For many Gabons, however, speculation began with this video: Was this video a fake? Was Bongo still alive? Was he quietly and secretly deposed? The Gabonese military also suspected a deepfake, and attempted an ultimately unsuccessful coup d’état, the first in Gabon since 1964 and probably the first in the world over a suspected deepfake video. The episode asks the fundamental question: what is truth anyway? Deepfakes undermine the notion of truth as we know it.
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