# Frequency-Aware Deepfake Detection: Improving Generalizability through Frequency Space Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.07240 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.07240/

## Key facts

- Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 41 of its 49 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 41)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Microsoft COCO: Common Objects in Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1405.0312/) (2014)
- [ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.0575/) (2014)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Deep Learning Face Attributes in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1411.7766/) (2014)
- [Analyzing and Improving the Image Quality of StyleGAN](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.04958/) (2019)
- [Progressive Growing of GANs for Improved Quality, Stability, and Variation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10196/) (2017)
- [Large Scale GAN Training for High Fidelity Natural Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.11096/) (2018)
- [Learning Deep Features for Discriminative Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.04150/) (2015)
- [Xception: Deep Learning with Depthwise Separable Convolutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02357/) (2016)
- [Spectral Normalization for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05957/) (2018)
- [LSUN: Construction of a Large-scale Image Dataset using Deep Learning with Humans in the Loop](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.03365/) (2015)
- [Semantic Image Synthesis with Spatially-Adaptive Normalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.07291/) (2019)
- [FaceForensics++: Learning to Detect Manipulated Facial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08971/) (2019)
- [StarGAN: Unified Generative Adversarial Networks for Multi-Domain Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.09020/) (2017)
- [CNN-generated images are surprisingly easy to spot... for now](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11035/) (2019)
- [Thinking in Frequency: Face Forgery Detection by Mining Frequency-aware Clues](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09355/) (2020)
- [Leveraging Frequency Analysis for Deep Fake Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08685/) (2020)
- [Towards Universal Fake Image Detectors that Generalize Across Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.10174/) (2023)
- [Detecting Deepfakes with Self-Blended Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08376/) (2022)
- [Lips Don't Lie: A Generalisable and Robust Approach to Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07657/) (2020)
- [Watch your Up-Convolution: CNN Based Generative Deep Neural Networks are Failing to Reproduce Spectral Distributions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.01826/) (2020)
- [What makes fake images detectable? Understanding properties that generalize](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10588/) (2020)
- [Generalizing Face Forgery Detection with High-frequency Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.12376/) (2021)
- [MMD GAN: Towards Deeper Understanding of Moment Matching Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.08584/) (2017)
- [AttGAN: Facial Attribute Editing by Only Changing What You Want](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.10678/) (2017)
- [Self-supervised Learning of Adversarial Example: Towards Good Generalizations for Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12208/) (2022)
- [Two-branch Recurrent Network for Isolating Deepfakes in Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.03412/) (2020)
- [Frequency-aware Discriminative Feature Learning Supervised by Single-Center Loss for Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.09096/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Improving Synthetic Image Detection Towards Generalization: An Image Transformation Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06741/) (2024)
- [HFI: A unified framework for training-free detection and implicit watermarking of latent diffusion model generated images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.20704/) (2024)
- [PRPO: Paragraph-level Policy Optimization for Vision-Language Deepfake Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.26272/) (2025)
- [A Large-scale Universal Evaluation Benchmark For Face Forgery Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09181/) (2024)
- [Present and Future Generalization of Synthetic Image Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14128/) (2024)
- [FREAK: Frequency-modulated High-fidelity and Real-time Audio-driven Talking Portrait Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04067/) (2025)
- [GLCF: A Global-Local Multimodal Coherence Analysis Framework for Talking Face Generation Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.13656/) (2024)
- [Robust and Calibrated Detection of Authentic Multimedia Content](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15182/) (2025)
- [Synthetic Art Generation and DeepFake Detection A Study on Jamini Roy Inspired Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.23226/) (2025)
- [Adversarially Robust AI-Generated Image Detection for Free: An Information Theoretic Perspective](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.22604/) (2025)
- [Zero-Shot Visual Deepfake Detection: Can AI Predict and Prevent Fake Content Before It's Created?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18461/) (2025)
- [SpecSem-Net: Integrating Spectral and Semantic Features for Robust AI-generated Video Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.17311/) (2026)
- [Unmasking Synthetic Realities in Generative AI: A Comprehensive Review of Adversarially Robust Deepfake Detection Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21157/) (2025)
- [Proto-LeakNet: Towards Signal-Leak Aware Attribution in Synthetic Human Face Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.04260/) (2025)
- [Towards Sustainable Universal Deepfake Detection with Frequency-Domain Masking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08042/) (2025)
- [Detecting Localized Deepfakes: How Well Do Synthetic Image Detectors Handle Inpainting?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16688/) (2025)
- [S^2F-Net:A Robust Spatial-Spectral Fusion Framework for Cross-Model AIGC Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12313/) (2026)
- [Deepfake Detection in Social Media: A Temporal Artifact Analysis Using 3D Convolutional Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.17573/) (2026)
- [Forged Calamity: Benchmark for Cross-Domain Synthetic Disaster Detection in the Age of Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18554/) (2026)
- [TIGA: Trajectory-Injected Generative Attack against Black-box AIGC Detectors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.25894/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This research addresses the challenge of developing a universal deepfake detector that can effectively identify unseen deepfake images despite limited training data. Existing frequency-based paradigms have relied on frequency-level artifacts introduced during the up-sampling in GAN pipelines to detect forgeries. However, the rapid advancements in synthesis technology have led to specific artifacts for each generation model. Consequently, these detectors have exhibited a lack of proficiency in learning the frequency domain and tend to overfit to the artifacts present in the training data, leading to suboptimal performance on unseen sources. To address this issue, we introduce a novel frequency-aware approach called FreqNet, centered around frequency domain learning, specifically designed to enhance the generalizability of deepfake detectors. Our method forces the detector to continuously focus on high-frequency information, exploiting high-frequency representation of features across spatial and channel dimensions. Additionally, we incorporate a straightforward frequency domain learning module to learn source-agnostic features. It involves convolutional layers applied to both the phase spectrum and amplitude spectrum between the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (iFFT). Extensive experimentation involving 17 GANs demonstrates the effectiveness of our proposed method, showcasing state-of-the-art performance (+9.8%) while requiring fewer parameters. The code is available at cred urlhttps://github.com/chuangchuangtan/FreqNet-DeepfakeDetection.