Personality Rights Of Non-Celebrities In The Age Of Deepfakes: Re-Centring Dignity And Autonomy In Indian Law
- IJLLR Journal
- 4 days ago
- 1 min read
Pratishtha Shree, School of Law, NMIMS University
ABSTRACT
The development of Indian personality rights law has occurred primarily through celebrity court cases, which use commercial worth, endorsement capabilities and brand reputation to support their protection decisions. The market-based system determines which legal protections will get support through its practice of using celebrity status as a deciding factor. The development of deepfake technology reveals both the weak points and discriminatory features which exist within this system. Deepfakes allow users to create fake versions of regular people, which they can use to commit fraud, sexual exploitation, harassment, and damage someone's reputation, while causing harm that exceeds what public figures experience. Yet non- celebrities lack doctrinally clear remedies under Indian law. The author proposes that Indian personality rights should exist as dignity-based rights which protect individual autonomy and identity under Article 21 instead of being treated as property rights that require fame or market value for protection. The proposal creates a constitutional system which divides identity-integrity rights from commercial publicity rights to protect all people's rights while preserving their freedom of expression.
