Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems

CleanFeed

Trust in Digital Media

© Fraunhofer FOKUS

With CleanFeed, we explore how trust in digital media can be preserved in the age of AI‑generated and manipulated content. Images, videos and texts can now be altered or synthesized with little effort, often in ways that make their origin and authenticity difficult to assess for users.

CleanFeed addresses this challenge by making the origin, processing and trustworthiness of digital media transparent and verifiable across the entire media chain – from capture to distribution. In doing so, the project contributes to strengthening trust, informed decision‑making and democratic processes in the digital public sphere.

Meet CleanFeed at our FOKUS Media Web Symposium and explore the Content Provenance Tracks & Sessions on June 16, 2026.

Project Goals and Approach

CleanFeed researches and develops an end‑to‑end trust and provenance framework for audiovisual content. The central question is how reliable provenance information can be secured along the entire production and distribution chain and made meaningfully usable for users.

The project goes beyond existing solutions by focusing on:

  • End‑to‑end provenance for VoD and live streaming, including segment‑based signing and verification suitable for dynamic packaging, multi‑CDN scenarios and low‑latency streaming.
  • Robustness against transformations, ensuring provenance information remains available despite re‑encoding, transcoding or content editing.
  • Multi‑layer trust models, combining cryptographic methods with complementary techniques such as forensic watermarking.
  • User‑centred presentation, exploring UI/UX concepts that communicate trust and provenance information in a clear and actionable way.

CleanFeed follows a strongly application‑oriented approach. Concepts are implemented prototypically, evaluated in realistic VoD and live scenarios and validated together with media partners and user focus groups.

CleanFeed, CheckAgain and DeepDive

The project investigates several usage scenarios built on a common technical foundation:

  • CleanFeed: Providing verified, trustworthy content in a dedicated timeline or filtered feed with explicit trust indicators.
  • CheckAgain: Retrospective verification and reassessment of published content when new information or evaluations become available.
  • DeepDive: In‑depth exploration of content origins, manipulations and journalistic context to foster transparency and media literacy.

Role of Fraunhofer FOKUS

Fraunhofer FOKUS, Business Unit Future Applications and Media (FAME), coordinates the CleanFeed consortium and serves as the architectural backbone of the project. Its responsibilities include system architecture, trust model design, reference implementations, client‑side verification components and the transfer of results into international standardisation bodies.

CleanFeed builds on and extends FOKUS’ Provenance & Authenticity toolchain.

Project Partners

  • Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS (business unit FAME)
  • Deutsche Welle (DW)
  • G&L Geißendörfer & Leschinsky GmbH
  • castlabs GmbH

Duration and Funding

  • Duration: April 1, 2026 – March 31, 2029
  • Funding: German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR)

Funded by

© Bundesministerium für Foschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt