According to experts, old images and videos are becoming a convenient tool for criminals, as they do not contain modern digital markers that help identify fakes. This leads to the creation of plausible compromising materials, including intimate photographs made using the images of people "from the past".
Alexander Parkin, head of research projects at VisionLabs, explained that to create deepfakes, it is enough to gather open data from users' social media. He added that parsing systems can quickly prepare the necessary material for fakes.
Igor Bederov, founder of the company "Internet Investigation," pointed out the widespread nature of this problem. According to his estimates, one in ten Russians has encountered attempts at fraud using deepfakes. If access to archival photographs and videos remains unrestricted, the number of such crimes could increase by 5 to 10 times in the coming months.
Recall that at the beginning of 2026, a wave of nostalgia began on social media under the slogan "2026 is the new 2016." Users are actively posting photos from ten years ago, reminiscing about how much simpler and calmer things were. Interest in the term "2016" on TikTok increased by 452% in the first week of January, and the number of posts with the hashtag #2016 reached 1.7 million. On Instagram, owned by Meta—a company recognized as extremist and banned in Russia—over 37 million posts inspired by the visual aesthetics of the mid-2010s have appeared.
