Deepfake Global Interest Report 2024

Where in the world are people most interested in the subject of deepfakes?

Deepfake Global Interest Report 2024
The Kapwing team analyzed internet search data to find the countries and U.S. states and cities where people are the most interested in deepfakes.

Synthetic media’s double-edged promise is to achieve new aesthetic feats while undermining human rights and security. In few areas does this mixed issue find such sensational attention as the realm of the deepfake: “a video, photo, or audio recording that seems real but has been manipulated with AI,” as defined by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

For now, the big headline-grabbers are deepfakes that appear to feature real people saying or doing things they didn’t. Nothing grabs the public’s attention like a celebrity, and humans have a special funny bone just for cracking up at a famous face saying something that’s not quite what they would usually say. (And there’s a unique satisfaction in seeing your favorite movie re-cast with unlikely actors)

But interest in deepfakes is not confined to entertainment. Deepfakes of leaders or world events are a genuine concern, especially in a post-truth era where the seeding of doubt and confusion is a legitimate political strategy. And the tale of the Hong Kong finance worker who wired $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake tech to impersonate his company’s chief financial officer will likely remain a cornerstone of cyber fraud lore until the end of time.

So where in the world is interest in deepfake technology and culture most prevalent? The Kapwing team analyzed internet search data to find the countries and U.S. states and cities where people are the most interested in deepfakes.

What We Did

We gathered the total Google Search volume across the top 100 deepfake-related keywords in every country. Then, we calculated the volume of searches per million internet users and adjusted for Google’s market share in each country. Finally, we repeated this process to rank states and U.S. cities for deepfake interest.

Key Findings

  • South Korea is the country most interested in deepfakes, making 13,399 searches per million people for deepfake-related keywords.
  • By comparison, in the U.S., there are 1,701 searches per million people for deepfake-related keywords.
  • Nevada is the state with the most searches for the word ‘deepfake,’ with 407 Google searches per million people.
  • America’s capital of deepfakes is Miami, with 1,930 searches for the word ‘deepfake’ per million people.

South Korea’s Deepfake Crisis Creates Record Interest in Deepfakes

First, we assessed the interest in deepfakes for every country with available data. Of these, we found three that stand out: South Korea (13,399), Czech Republic (11,356), and Sweden (10,443) are the only places with more than 10,000 deepfake-related searches per million people. By comparison, the fourth most interested country is the Netherlands, with 5,359 searches per million. There are 18 countries that make more searches per million than the U.S. (1,701).

An infographic titled 'Which countries are most interested in deepfakes?'. A world map displays search volume for deepfake terms per 1 mill internet users. South Korea has the highest number of searches at 13,399 per million people.
South Korea was found to be the country most interested in deepfakes (13,399 per million people)

Nevada is a Deepfake Interest Hotspot

Next, we mapped deepfake interest in every U.S. state, by looking at who was searching for the exact term ‘deepfake.’ The most deepfake-curious states are Nevada (407 searches per million people), New York (337) and California (311). In Nevada, where there has been a crackdown on using Elvis Presley’s likeness for real-life weddings, teenagers have found their own likenesses integrated into deepfakes and used for cyberbullying and practical jokes.

“The problem is most of our systems, whether it be a school district system or some kind of law enforcement, we're one step behind of what's the what's the most current you know technology,” says Isaac Barron, a teacher and North Las Vegas City Councilman.

An infographic titled 'Which states are most interested in deepfakes?'. A map of the US displays search volume for deepfake terms per 1 mill internet users. Nevada has the highest number of searches using the term, at 407 per million people.
Nevada displayed the most interest in deepfakes at 407 searches per one million people.

California is a major arena for the unfolding culture of AI deepfakes. In September 2024, Governor Gavin Newsom enshrined legislation to protect against political deepfakes used for disinformation ahead of the presidential election.

He also signed legislation to protect the likenesses of actors from being digitally replicated, saying,

“We continue to wade through uncharted territory when it comes to how AI and digital media is transforming the entertainment industry, but our North Star has always been to protect workers. This legislation ensures the industry can continue thriving while strengthening protections for workers and how their likeness can or cannot be used.”

Miami is the Capital of Searching for Deepfake News

Finally, we charted the cities with the most interest in deepfakes. Miami (1,930 searches for the term ‘deepfake’ per million people) is ahead by a significant margin. Deepfake images of Miami poll workers dumping ballots spread on social media, ramping up concerns in the months ahead of the presidential election.

An infographic titled 'Which U.S. cities are most interested in deepfakes?'. The data reveals Miami, FL, has the highest search volume for 'deepfake' per one million users at 1,930.
A city by city comparison.

In another incident, scammers used an image of a missing person as the basis of a false identity, creating a deepfake video to ‘verify’ the existence of a woman purportedly selling a vacant lot in South Florida. Luckily, the title company owner quickly noticed the video was fake. “I’ve never seen that type of likeness or information used for a criminal act in my experience,” said Captain Quincy Cromer of the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.

“The eyes in the deepfake are not going to be looking at the camera,” advised Dr. Ernesto Lee, a professor at Miami-Dade College’s Artificial Intelligence Center. “Look at the lips. The lips oftentimes won’t sync with the audio. A lot of times it plays on loops. So you want to look for the same motions back and forth because it’ll eventually loop.”

Welcome to Deepfake City

Despite the fears of American lawmakers and the 87.4% of Brits who were concerned that deepfakes would undermine 2024’s UK election results, serious deepfake issues were few and far between during 2024’s big elections. This was partly because politicians have never been shy of lying at election time, regardless of the available technology.

“Out-and-out lies and conspiracy theories were prevalent, but they weren't always accompanied by synthetic media,” says Oren Etzioni, founder of TrueMedia.org — although he also points out that the better the technology gets, the more tempting it will be to use it to spread disinformation.

Sadly, the very real harm deepfakes have caused and the sensationalized stories accompanying them can detract from some of the positive uses of deepfake technology. These include creating deepfakes of yourself to make content production quicker, building realistic AI characters to populate your brand’s universe, or polishing your video footage before publishing. Perhaps using deepfake technology in good faith may even help people to develop their critical instincts towards bad faith fakes. Since both good and bad deepfakes are sure to persist, it pays to maintain an interest in their development.

Our Methodology

For every country, we gathered the total Google Search volume as of December 2024 across the top 100 deepfake-related keywords. We then adjusted these search volumes according to the market share of Google Search in each country (e.g., if Google Search only accounts for 50% of all searches in a country, we doubled the volume). Finally, we calculated the volume of adjusted searches per 1 million internet users in each country. We repeated this process with the "deepfake" search term to rank states and US cities for deepfake interest.

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