According to experts, such archival images and video materials are of particular interest to fraudsters, as they do not contain modern digital markers that usually help identify fakes. This allows for the creation of plausible compromising materials, including intimate photographs, using images of people from the past.
Alexander Parkin, head of research projects at VisionLabs, noted that creating deepfakes is as simple as gathering open data from users' social media accounts using automated parsing systems. This enables fraudsters to quickly prepare source materials for forgeries.
Igor Bederov, founder of "Internet-Search," added that this issue is becoming increasingly relevant. In his opinion, one in ten Russians has already encountered attempts at fraud related to deepfakes. If access to archival photos and videos remains unrestricted, the number of such crimes could increase five to ten times in the coming months.
It is worth noting that at the beginning of 2026, a new wave of nostalgia emerged on social media under the slogan "2026 is the new 2016." Users began to mass publish old photos and reminisce about a time that seems simpler and calmer. In the first week of January, interest in the word "2016" on TikTok surged by 452%, and the number of posts with the hashtag #2016 reached 1.7 million. On Instagram, owned by Meta, which is considered extremist and banned in Russia, more than 37 million posts inspired by the aesthetics of the mid-2010s were published.
