The legal word is narrower than the internet's. A cartoon mascot is not a deepfake. A clearly impossible dragon is not. A clip of a real mayor saying a line they did not say, or a generated street that a viewer would take as a real place, is. The Commission's Article 50 FAQ (digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/faqs/transparency-obligations-under-article-50-ai-act) uses resemblance plus authenticity, not intent to deceive. A well-made, honestly labelled AI avatar of a real-looking person can still be a deepfake on realism alone.
Deployers who publish that content to an EU audience owe a visible or audible label at first exposure — first frame or first sound, not a description-field footnote. Artistic, creative, satirical or fictional works may label in a way that does not spoil the work. Standard assistive editing (colour, crop, denoise) is exempt. Content generated and published before 2 August 2026 is not retroactive; generated before and published after is covered.
Platform AI toggles (YouTube altered content, TikTok AI label, Meta's C2PA/self-disclosure path) sit next to this duty. They do not absorb it. A realistic synthetic person in an ad is also an endorser under the FTC's 2023 guidance, labelled or not. The decision tree is: would a person take this as a real person, place or event? If yes, label at first exposure and check the platform toggle. If no, you may still owe an AI content label under house rules, but you are not in the Article 50 deepfake bucket.
In practice
- If a real person, place or event would look authentic, label on the file at first exposure — not only in the caption.
- A stylised or obviously impossible generate is usually out of this definition; a photoreal talking head of a type of person is usually in.
- Decide whether you are the deployer (you published it) or the provider (you built the generator). The duty is not the same.
The mistake to avoid
Reserving 'deepfake' for political fakes. Article 50's test is resemblance plus authenticity, including a product presenter a viewer would take as a real person.
Go deeper
Article 50 disclosure template
Paste-ready Article 50 labels for video, image, audio and text, the three official EU icons, and where they go on TikTok, YouTube and Meta.
Related terms
Article 50
Article 50 of the EU AI Act is the 2 August 2026 transparency rule: labels on certain AI interactions, synthetic media, and public-interest AI text.
Deployer
A deployer, under the EU AI Act, is whoever uses an AI system under their authority. If you publish a deepfake, you owe the label the viewer sees.
Synthetic media disclosure
Synthetic media disclosure is the broader legal obligation to identify AI-generated or altered content as such — increasingly a binding requirement rather than a platform preference, with the EU AI Act's Article 50 as the clearest current example.
AI content label
AI content label meaning: a platform or creator tag that marks a post as made or altered with AI. Separate from paid-endorsement disclosure.
Spark Ads
Spark Ads meaning: TikTok budget behind an existing post (yours or a creator's) so paid reach keeps the real likes, comments, and shares.
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