From Confusion to Extremism: How Deepfakes Facilitate Radicalisation

Deepfakes may not need to explicitly advance a violent extremist ideology to be a radicalisation vector. In a world where deepfakes are on the rise we must pay more attention to how the confusion and uncertainty they generate may push people to violent extremism, regardless of ideological messaging.

In an article for Global Network on Extremism & Technology, Koi Tū fellow Georgia Lala explores how, in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach attack, AI-generated content quickly circulated online, intensifying uncertainty during a moment of crisis and she discusses how this “crisis of knowing” caused by deepfakes can act as a radicalisation vector towards extremism.

Read the article here: https://gnet-research.org/2026/02/11/from-confusion-to-extremism-how-deepfakes-facilitate-radicalisation/