Dr Harjinder Singh Lallie, discipline group leader in cyber security at the University of Warwick said: “Deepfake videos can become internationally viral within minutes. The vast majority of citizens have no way of telling whether a video is fake or real and many videos can probably fool experts too. The technology to create deepfake videos and audio is now easily and freely available which means there will be thousands more deepfake videos coming out in the coming months, especially in the run up to the election.

“We need to develop algorithms and solutions which can inspect a potential deepfake and provide a confidence rating on whether or not we can trust that video. The government also needs to consider legislation which makes the production and distribution of these videos illegal.”