Communicators Must Act as Trust in Digital Content Erodes Toward Zero

What you’ll learn when you read this article:

• Why the concept of “zero trust” is shifting from a cybersecurity framework to a critical mindset for communicators navigating disinformation, deepfakes, and generative AI.

• How the erosion of trust in digital content, reflected in research from Edelman, Pew, and CrowdStrike, threatens the credibility and effectiveness of communications.

• What steps communicators can take now, including adopting content provenance authentication, to safeguard reputation, verify authenticity, and rebuild confidence in digital media.

My computer scientist co-founder at Tauth Labs often chides me about my relaxed use of technology terms. For technologists, “zero trust” has a very specific meaning, which I’ll come back to later.

For communicators, zero trust can be most intuitively understood as the end state of a world in which disinformation, misinformation, deepfakes, hijacked and imposter content have so eroded confidence that no one believes anything. We are on that path — even if we never reach the destination. Trust in digital content is declining, and communicators can no longer afford to ignore it.

Edelman’s Trust Barometer continues to reflect this erosion, showing a fundamental weakening of the foundation that supports communications and the digital economy. The reasons are clear and close to home. Who hasn’t received scam emails, fake texts, or encountered deceptively edited videos? Misinformation now flows from government institutions once considered credible. Pew Research reports that 75 percent of Americans have been targeted by digital scams or cyberattacks in the past year alone.

This decline in trust is increasingly tied to the power of artificial intelligence. Generative AI is being used to mimic people, forge documents, and fabricate images, audio and video. CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report raises the alarm about these threats. On one side of the spectrum, this has enabled a new generation of political satire — such as Scared Ketchup and Mr. Newberger’s AI Funnies. On the other side, bad actors have used the same tools to create convincing deepfakes of politicians and CEOs. NewsGuard recently documented Russian-backed campaigns producing fake content that imitates trusted outlets like ABC, BBC and Politico.

It’s no surprise that audiences are skeptical. In fact, skepticism is a rational response to a world where distinguishing fact from fiction is increasingly difficult. Knowing whether content truly originates from the organization it claims to represent is becoming more important — and more difficult.

The technical definition of zero trust refers to a cybersecurity philosophy that assumes no interaction can be trusted without verification. Everything must be checked, always. For communicators, this means understanding that we have moved from President Reagan’s doctrine of “trust but verify” to a new reality of “verify, then trust.” Audiences must be able to confirm that what they see is real and reliable.

This concept is not only useful for cybersecurity professionals. A Forrester report from this year’s Zero Trust Technology Conference warned that “Companies need to proactively take steps to protect themselves from the growing risks of malign actors.” Communicators must heed the same advice.

Zero trust is a powerful framing tool. Recognizing that trust is declining — and that it directly threatens our ability to do our jobs — should be a catalyst for action. Like reputation, trust is hard to regain once lost.

So what can be done now? One of the most actionable steps communicators can take is adopting content provenance authentication. This technology, developed by a coalition of leading tech and media companies alongside startups like Tauth Labs, embeds a robust digital watermark in content to confirm its origin and integrity. It builds verification directly into digital assets — whether documents, images or videos — before they are shared.

Think of it as embedding trust into the content itself. Authentication helps protect journalists and clients from fraud. It’s not just a defensive move — it improves discoverability and enables platforms to identify manipulated or fake material. In time, this can become the infrastructure for restoring trust.

With the rise of generative AI, communicators can no longer afford to be passive observers. Knowing that we are headed toward a zero-trust world, we must act now. Authentication is not optional. It is a table-stakes technology that enables us to preserve credibility, mitigate risk and uphold the values of our profession.