Deep Fakes And Indian Criminal Law: Challenges And Regulating Gaps In The Age Of AI
- IJLLR Journal
- 4 hours ago
- 2 min read
Alisha Chauhan, Phoolwati College, CCSU
ABSTRACT
The proliferation of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has weaponized digital media through "deepfakes"—highly convincing, algorithmically manipulated audio, visual, or audio-visual content. In the Indian context, the malicious application of this technology spans across critical dimensions: financial extortion, electoral subversion, targeted political disinformation, and the involuntary sexualization of individuals through Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII). As these synthetic fabrications blur the boundary between fiction and reality, they pose an unprecedented threat to individual privacy, bodily autonomy, institutional trust, and national security.
In light of these challenges, this study evaluates the efficacy of India’s current penal and digital architectures. Specifically, it investigates whether the newly enforced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS) and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act) adequately address AI-generated crimes, and to what extent the IT Intermediary Guidelines successfully regulate deepfakes without causing a chilling effect on free speech. Adopting a doctrinal research methodology, this paper analyzes statutory provisions, global risk-based governance models like the EU AI Act, and emerging judicial precedents, including personality rights injunctions by various High Courts.
The findings reveal that a fragmented "patchwork approach" persists within Indian criminal law; the BNS lacks a distinct criminalization of AI offenses, forcing reliance on traditional definitions of fraud or defamation. Furthermore, recent regulatory updates mandating strict takedown windows for Synthetically Generated Information (SGI) shift an immense burden onto intermediaries, risking defensive over-censorship. The paper concludes that algorithmic accountability cannot serve as a permanent proxy for substantive criminal reform. It recommends amending the BNS to codify a standalone, technology-sensitive offense penalizing malicious synthetic media, establishing specialized digital forensics infrastructure, and formulating clearer statutory defenses to shield bona fide parodies and research.
Keywords: Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, Deepfakes, Digital Privacy, Generative AI (GenAI), Information Technology Act 2000, Intermediary Liability, Non-Consensual Intimate Imagery (NCII), Synthetically Generated Information (SGI)
