Criminalizing Deepfakes: Legal Challenges And The Future Of Cybercrime Law In India
- IJLLR Journal
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
Mahi Soni, BA.LLB (Hons), Manipal University Jaipur, Rajasthan, Dahme Kalan, India
ABSTRACT
Deepfake, a hyper-realistic synthetic medium produced by artificial intelligence (AI), has developed into a potent and dangerous tool for distorting reality in unprecedented ways in the digital age. By manipulating videos, audio, and images to convincingly show individuals saying or doing things (they did not) this strongly threatens individual privacy, integrity, political and social stability, and the possible administration of justice. Deepfake technology is evolving rapidly, and AI tools are more readily available. Legal and ethical challenges, mostly as a result of technology evolving faster than the law, are arduous—more so in jurisdictions like India where the law is still developing to catch up with technological advances.
Heeding this context, in this paper I critically examine India’s existing cyber and criminal law framework, while noting how there is currently no explicit legal recognition or regulation of deepfakes. While there may be some provisions that can address instances of deepfakes under the Information Technology Act, 2000 And Provisions of BNS, 2023 such as defamation, obscenity, or violations of privacy—there is still no legal clarity or prohibition regarding the more complex issues, such as AI-driven impersonation, digitally manipulated consent, or extensive disinformation in politics or society.
In addition, there are other constitutional implications of regulating deepfakes, principally the right to freedom of speech and expression, versus not infringing someone's right to privacy, dignity, and democratic integrity, etc. Also, the evidentiary challenges of determining the source and/or the intent of deepfakes make enforcement more complicated.
At the end of the paper, I suggest a more proactive regulatory situation where the law is update to technology and holds citizens in an ethical space.
Keywords: Deepfake, Crime, Misuse of AI, face manipulations
