4 steps for building a proactive anti-deepfake strategy

In order to build a proactive strategy for risk management, brands need to understand their audience and how information flows to prevent crisis from deepfakes and AI.

Understanding how people think along with audience analysis is a passion for Simon Paterson, the U.S. head of counter disinformation for crisis and risk at Edelman.

His past experience advising national defense institutions led him to become an expert in crisis communications, and more specifically, how AI and deepfakes are used to malign organizations.

“I have a dual experience of understanding both data and environment and understanding ways of passing out information on structured data to help elicit action,” Paterson said of crisis communications. “I also have the understanding that there’s a need for comprehensive and rigorous planning and how to execute that.”

Building a more secure strategy when it comes to deepfakes and AI takes recognizing and becoming better at understanding the flow of information and where it hits an inflection point, Paterson said.

“One of the great benefits of technology and AI is the ability to now take a piece of content and understand how that has moved through the network, where it has hit, how it is manifested and how it helps change or inform your strategy,” Paterson said.

Organizations need a better understanding of social listening to make sure there are processes in place to be able to effectively react and respond or monitor the exploitation of a brand or executive, Paterson said.

This can be done through data analysis and tracking insights and audience engagement, he said.

“This feeds into a wider strategy that I preach nonstop,” Paterson said. “We need to be more strategic in how we handle risk. It can no longer be an afterthought…it needs to be baked in early.”

Proactive approach

Risk management needs to be carefully considered, preemptive and proactive, Paterson said.

Businesses and brands that are successful at doing this take a more considered approach to comprehensive risk management strategy beyond relying on a “light-switch” approach. In other words, addressing a crisis as it’s occurring rather than anticipating it ahead of time isn’t helpful, Paterson said.

Comms teams can also benefit from integrating with cybersecurity and tech teams, he said.

“I’ve often seen when a deepfake has surfaced by a brand, the cyber team and tech team (are) flagged first and then the comms team is brought in as an afterthought,” Paterson said. “Actually, if you think about the harm, unless it’s social engineering for fraud reasons, the harm is reputational.”

Working together, cyber, tech and comms teams can mitigate reputational harm from AI and deepfakes while also having a greater understanding of how to address crises.

There’s also an authority and credibility challenge. People actively believe that both government and business leaders are misleading them, Paterson said.

Points to consider when developing a proactive strategy include:

• Understand who your audience is: What are their patterns? What is their behavior? Who are the communities that are influencing your key stakeholders or shaping their perceptions?
• Building trust: How are you building authentic voices within your communities? How do you monitor the level of trust that is being presented and executed?
• Tracking data and insights: What can you learn from content analytics? What patterns show up? What can you infer about your audience through those patterns? How is the content moving through the network?
• Learning from the past: Post-crisis, what worked? What didn’t? What can you take away from this to improve? What was the impact on reputation?

“You must now have a multitude of voices and accreditations,” he said. “And it needs to be a part of a network of voices within communities that are organic and authentic to really get your point across.”

Register here and join Paterson and other industry experts for Ragan’s Crisis Communications Virtual Conference on Tuesday, June 17 from 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET.

Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at [email protected].