Adobe's C2PA authentication standard is collapsing under real-world pressure, according to a damning investigation by The Verge. The metadata system - backed by Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI - was meant to label AI-generated content and verify authentic media. Instead, platforms strip the metadata during uploads, Apple refuses to join, and Instagram chief Adam Mosseri openly admits society must start with skepticism about all photos and videos. As deepfakes flood social platforms and even the U.S. government distributes AI-manipulated images, the war on consensus reality is being lost at the infrastructure level.
Adobe launched C2PA with a promise: embed tamper-proof metadata at the moment of creation, track every edit, and give platforms a way to authenticate real content versus AI-generated deepfakes. Two years later, the standard is imploding.
It's failed, Jess Weatherbed, who covers creative tools for The Verge, told the Decoder podcast this week. What C2PA was designed for and what companies are using it for are two different things.
The coalition behind C2PA reads like a who's who of tech power: Adobe, Meta, Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Qualcomm all sit on the steering committee. Sony, Leica, and Nikon embed the system in new camera models. Google Pixel phones write C2PA metadata to every photo. But in practice, none of it works.
The breakdown happens at distribution. When you upload an image to Instagram, LinkedIn, or Threads - all supposedly using the standard - the platforms strip out the metadata anyway. They have no idea what to do with it when they actually have it, Weatherbed said. According to internal Adobe discussions, even OpenAI admits the metadata is incredibly easy to strip to the point that online platforms might actually do that accidentally.
The most glaring gap? Apple won't join. Sources told Weatherbed the iPhone maker was involved in conversations but nothing moved forward. That's a fatal blow - Apple controls the majority of smartphone photography in developed markets, the exact cameras capturing protest footage, government overreach, and social movements that rely on visual proof.
Apple needs to be able to stand on its laurels about something, and nothing is going to offer them that at the minute, Weatherbed explained. The company watched Google and OpenAI loudly champion C2PA only to watch it fail in deployment.
