Victimization by Deepfake in the Metaverse: Building a Practical Management Framework

Deepfake is digitally altered media aimed to deceive online users for political favor, monetary gain, extortion, and more. Deepfakes are the prevalent issues of impersonation, privacy, and fake news that cause substantial damage to individuals, groups, and organizations. The metaverse is an emerging 3-dimensional virtual platform led by AI and blockchain technology where users freely interact with each other. The purpose of this study is to identify the use of illicit deep fakes which can potentially contribute to cybercrime victimization in the metaverse. The data will be derived from expert interviews (n=8) and online open sources to design a framework and provide solutions to mitigate deepfake-related victimization in the metaverse. This study identifies and further suggests a framework for advocacy of deepfake crime victimization in the metaverse through the application of the routine activities theory, as well as offender motivation and potential explanation of criminal behavior through Eysenck’s theory of criminality.