Fakes as a factor of modern information and communication conditions

Currently, the issue of the spread of fakes in information flows is more acute than ever – false information that is passed off as truth in order to obtain benefits, attract traffic, destructively influence the public consciousness, etc. In this regard, the relevance of this article is explained, on the one hand, by the spread of fakes in the media space, and on the other hand, by the insufficient theoretical development of this topic and only emerging interest in it. The article analyzes the essence of fakes, their goals and features, types of fake news, technologies that are used to create fake content, and also examines the influence of fakes on public consciousness. The article provides data from a survey of 586 respondents and a statistical analysis of the results. As a result, a conclusion is made about the need for further thorough and in-depth study of this topic in order to reduce the negative impact of fakes on the social and political stability of society in such a difficult time for the country. Nowadays, information is one of the most powerful tools for influencing people's opinions, beliefs and ideas, manipulating their consciousness. Modern people live in an information flow, the source of which is the media, social networks, the Internet, news and, of course, fakes. News fakes are not an innovation of the 21st century, they have existed since immemorial times, but it is in recent years, with the development and spread of information technology and artificial intelligence, that they have acquired truly global proportions. The situation is complicated by the fact of the spread and active use of modern information technologies, in particular artificial intelligence, which allows creating fakes so real that they are almost impossible to distinguish from the truth.