Constitutional Quandary From Firewalls To Freedoms: The Role Of IPR In Picketing Against Deepfake Exploitation In India
- IJLLR Journal
- 11 hours ago
- 2 min read
Ruprekha Chatterjee & Madhurima De, Shyambazar Law College, Calcutta University
ABSTRACT
Today in this century there’s no space for doubt regarding rapid yield of deepfake technology from a novelty to a powerful tool of manipulation, that is hoisting urgent concerns for individual rights, public trust, and legal enforcement. These AI-birthed synthetic videos and images time an again indistinct from actual content have been increasingly operated to harass, impersonate, defame, and exploit individuals, in a country like India, where legal safeguards remain fragmented and reactive in practice. As such, deepfakes dare not just technological regulation but the very foundations of constitutional aegis, including the right to privacy, dignity, and free expression. This paper will portray the triangular interplay between deepfake exploitation, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), and the Indian Constitution. It will scrutinize whether and how the IPR laws in force specially, those protecting copyright, trademarks, and moral rights augmenting meaningful protection to individuals whose likeness, voice, or persona is malused in digital forgeries. The limitations of these laws when applied to non-commercial, non-consensual harms that fall outside traditional IPR frameworks are also being interrogated by thorough probing. Consequently, the paper will underscore the pressing need for India’s legal framework to formally acknowledge personality rights and digital identity as integral to an individual’s dignity, autonomy, and evolving presence in a connected world. Positioned within the larger constitutional context, the paper lights on the state's responsibility in building legal firewalls against emerging technologies while conserving the freedoms under Articles 19 and 21. Drawing from key judgments like Justice K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, it emphasizes the need for a nuanced legal approach-one that integrates IPR tools with constitutional protections and cybercrime enforcement. The paper concludes that while IPR alone cannot resolve in its totality the obstacles posed by deepfakes, it can become a critical part of a hybrid legal framework anchored in constitutional values that safeguards not only creative works but the very identities and freedoms of individuals in the digital era.
Keywords: Intellectual Property Rights, Deepfake Technology, Privacy.
