WASHINGTON, September 15, 2026 – At 7:12 AM one day, Marcus Vance of Lansing found himself enjoying his cup of coffee while a 14-second audio snippet flashed on his community chat group. It was the distinct voice of a school board candidate confessing to having been involved in a payback deal that even came with an embarrassing room echo and background cough.
Only one problem: the candidate never said a word of it.
As political campaigns ramp up all across the country, deepfake videos and other algorithmically generated falsehoods are not confined to big-budget Hollywood productions anymore. They are being used in local city council elections. And quite frankly, the truth is hard to distinguish from fiction.
So, how do you spot a sophisticated digital forgery before passing it along?
First, look past the big picture and interrogate the physical glitches. While generative models have improved drastically, researchers at the MIT Media Lab Detect Fakes project emphasize examining specific micro-expressions and lighting inconsistencies. False images sometimes have trouble with the laws of physics—the shadow is falling on the wrong side, the earrings are asymmetrical, or the eyeglasses are just part of the skull. In the videos, look out for the way people blink—they can blink at irregular intervals and even have a skin texture without any pores.
Another issue with audio deepfakes is that synthesized voices might have an unusual robot-like cadence or pause unnaturally between clauses because humans do not think about breathing. Beyond visual and acoustic artifacts, the most dangerous element of synthetic media isn’t the technology—it’s how it plays on human emotions. Recent research published in SAGE Journals highlights how algorithmic deepfakes are specifically designed to trigger immediate outrage or moral panic, overriding our critical thinking before we even think to question the source. When a piece of media makes your blood boil instantly, that’s your cue to pause.
Instead of trusting a single viral post, cross-check the claim using established verification routines. Academic guidance on digital misinformation literacy recommends adopting the approach of lateral reading: opening up a new browser tab to seek out whether credible local media organizations, official election results, or verified primary sources can back up the story. If the bombshell audio clip that you have seen is on some random account on X or Telegram, it’s best to doubt its authenticity.
Although the technology behind deepfakes continues to evolve, skepticism turns out to be quite effective. The next time you get a shocker from your feed, just breathe, spot the errors, and then verify.
