[surrealize]

There's an original, canonical version of the audio, and the hash of that version goes on chain. That establishes who posted it originally, when, and the exact version. Then any subsequent (potentially doctored) version can be compared with the canonical original. The on-chain timestamp and hash can't be changed after the fact, in the same way that past bitcoin blocks can't be changed (without creating a fork).

It could at least address some kinds of misleading editing. In the political use case, maybe the candidate posts all their event audio and records the hashes on chain. Then they can't change the content of any of it without getting caught. And if someone else posts an edited version, the edit will have a later timestamp, and the candidate can point to their original earlier version and prove that it's the original. That lets everyone else determine which version is the original and which version is the edit.