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According to [gogen-allguide.com](http://gogen-allguide.com/te/dema.html) デマ
comes from the German demagogie, so it would make sense for it to be similar
to demagogy in English. But demagogy is used for political things like false
claims and promises, where デマ is much broader nowadays to mean any groundless
statement or rumor 「根拠のない、いい加減な噂話」, even if it was political in nature at
first.

For ガセ [gogen-allguide.com](http://gogen-allguide.com/ka/gase.html) simply
defines it as 「偽物。まやかし物。噓。」 and describes it's origin as probably being the がせ
of お騒がせ.

These are both very general definitions, so are they completely
interchangeable anymore or are there situations where one would be preferred
over the other?
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usage definitions
Is there some functional difference between デマ and ガセ?
デマ is an abstract idea as you mentioned in the statement.

ガセ is a concrete stuff which you can qrasp by your hands. so, you can say
ガセネタを摑{つか}まされる。 I would not say デマを摑{つか}まされる。

ガセ is close to パチモン. デマ is not.

See the link : [コトバ解説
「デマ」と「ガセ」の違い](https://mainichi.jp/articles/20120423/mul/00m/040/015000c)
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Both デマ and ガセ refer to false information (thus it's intangible), but the
biggest difference is that デマ must be prevailing; it is always intended to be
widely spread through rumors or SNS, and thousands (or millions) of people are
affected. Fake news on Facebook is usually called デマ. See how the words like
噂, 流す, 扇動 are included only in the definition of デマ.

On the other hand, fake information obtained through a person-to-person deal
is called ガセ (or ガセネタ, 偽情報, 嘘) but not デマ. At least in modern Japanese,
whether the information is political is not important in both cases. (By the
way, as far as I know, knock-off brand goods are called ニセ or エセ but not ガセ.)
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answer