Deepfake Technology: Analysing The Legal Challenges And The Indian Framework
- IJLLR Journal
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Paridhi Kurre, Hidayatullah National Law University
Taniya Khusbu Kujur, Hidayatullah National Law University
I. INTRODUCTION
Deepfake, a term that attained popularity in 2017, is another phenomenon in the world of synthetic media. Deepfake technology is an artificial intelligence mechanism produced using machine learning techniques to create synthetic and hyper-realistic media, such as audio, video, images, etc. Deepfake is a portmanteau of “deep learning” and “fake”. It arose in 2017 when a Reddit user with a similar moniker posted edited videos. A face-swap video is made in a few steps. The two people’s hundreds of facial images are first put through an encoder, an AI algorithm. The encoder identifies and remembers similarities among the two faces, reducing them to their shared characteristic and compressing the images. Such features are then trained to be recovered first from compressed photos by a second AI system known as a decoder.
The worldwide recognition of deepfake media has become prominent these days. Today, youth and even the younger generation constantly interact with deepfake videos and images, morphed and altered in a certain manner on different social media platforms, namely Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Reddit, etc. According to a news article, “More than 75% of Indians present online and surveyed by cybersecurity company McAfee have seen some form of deepfake content over the last 12 months, while at least 38% of the respondents surveyed have encountered a deepfake scam during this time. The deepfake technology is mainly being influenced by a massive number of people unknowingly forwarding the deepfake content on social platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram groups, which leads to the exponential spread of misinformation. The deepfake issue is well recognised, yet many people are unfamiliar with distinguishing such media and information, and public awareness is limited.
