Deepfake detection remains a pressing challenge, particularly in real-world settings where smartphone-captured media from digital screens often introduces Moiré artifacts that can distort detection outcomes. This study systematically evaluates state-of-the-art (SOTA) deepfake detectors on Moiré-affected videos—an issue that has received little attention. We collected a dataset of 12,832 videos, spanning 35.64 hours, from Celeb-DF, DFD, DFDC, UADFV, and FF++ datasets, capturing footage under diverse real-world conditions, including varying screens, smartphones, lighting setups, and camera angles. To further examine the influence of Moiré patterns on deepfake detection, we conducted additional experiments using our DeepMoiréFake, referred to as (DMF) dataset, and two synthetic Moiré generation techniques. Across 15 top-performing detectors, our results show that Moiré artifacts degrade performance by as much as 25.4\%, while synthetically generated Moiré patterns lead to a 21.4\% drop in accuracy. Surprisingly, demoiréing methods, intended as a mitigation approach, instead worsened the problem, reducing accuracy by up to 16\%. These findings underscore the urgent need for detection models that can robustly handle Moiré distortions alongside other real-world challenges, such as compression, sharpening, and blurring. By introducing the DMF dataset, we aim to drive future research toward closing the gap between controlled experiments and practical deepfake detection.

Deepfake detection is critical in mitigating the societal threats posed by manipulated videos. While various algorithms have been developed for this purpose, challenges arise when detectors operate externally, such as on smartphones, when users take a photo of deepfake images and upload on the Internet. One significant challenge in such scenarios is the presence of Moiré patterns, which degrade image quality and confound conventional classification algorithms, including deep neural networks (DNNs). The impact of Moiré patterns remains largely unexplored for deepfake detectors. In this study, we investigate how camera-captured deepfake videos from digital screens affect detector performance. We conducted experiments using two prominent datasets, CelebDF and FF++, comparing the performance of four state-of-theart detectors on camera-captured deepfake videos with introduced Moiré patterns. Our findings reveal a significant decline in detector accuracy, with none achieving above 68% on average. This underscores the critical need to address Moiré pattern challenges in real-world deepfake detection scenarios.