Digital Doppelgängers: Reinforcing Personality Rights To Fight Deepfakes In India
- IJLLR Journal
- Jan 27
- 1 min read
Akshat Anand, Symbiosis Law School, Pune
ABSTRACT
Deepfake technology has the potential to bring about significant disruptions regarding to identity, privacy, and respect in any law of the world and more specifically in Indian laws. Using AI to generate near perfection in fake videos, deepfakes are being used for identity theft, revenge porn, and political manipulation which have revealed shortcomings of India’s legal system.
The Copyright Act, 1957 and Trade Marks Act, 1999, do not adequately protect the rights of ordinary individuals in their works of creation, focusing only on the commercial value of celebrities. Despite recent judgments addressing personality rights, ordinary citizens are still not adequately protected, highlighting the need for improved protection of individual rights. This research article examines the issues in Indian intellectual property and privacy law frameworks related to deep fakes and suggests a constitutional reimagining of personality rights under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, drawing on the comprehensive legal systems of Germany and the United States.
The article suggests expanding the scope of personality rights, preventing Deepfakes, and promoting cooperation with authorities, social media platforms, and NGOs. It suggests blending legal reforms with technological safeguards and public awareness initiatives to balance the ethical promise of deepfakes with individuals' identity protection and dignity in the digital age. Therefore, by prescribing the combination of legal interventions with technological and awareness measures, this article unfolds a way to harmonise the ethical potential of deepfakes with the envelopment of identity and human dignity in the digital era.
Keywords: deepfakes, personality rights, identity protection, legal reforms, public awareness
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