When a photo becomes evidence: how synthetic media turns into "proof" overnight

A message hits a group chat: "Look what happened." It includes a screenshot, a cropped photo, maybe a screen recording. Within minutes, it spreads — and the assumption is automatic: if it looks real, it must be real.

That’s the new problem: media is now a high-speed input into decisions. Moderation queues, newsroom desks, insurance claims, elections teams, legal disputes — they all face the same issue: attribution and integrity are missing.

Detection alone is not enough. A model score is not evidence. The moment the file is screenshotted, resized, re-encoded, or reposted, the usual signals degrade. And even when detection works, it rarely answers the operational question: “Can I prove this file’s origin and whether it was altered?”

The practical goal is a durable proof signal: a compact marker that can be recovered after common transformations, tied to a unique identifier (UID), and supported by logs that show when and how the media was produced.

This is the gap DeadMark + DeadDetect are designed to fill: DeadMark embeds invisible, UID-linked proof signals at generation time; DeadDetect verifies presence, recovers the UID when possible, returns confidence, and surfaces evidence to support review workflows.

If you’re building a pipeline, start with three basics: (1) add provenance at the source (generation/export), (2) store minimal logs keyed by UID, and (3) ensure verification produces explainable evidence — not just a yes/no verdict.

The win is simple: fewer false accusations, fewer missed fraud attempts, faster investigations, and a verification trail that survives the real internet.