When Reality Breaks: Deepfakes, Defamation, Fraud, And The Unravelling Of Personality Rights In India’s Regulatory Dark Zone
- IJLLR Journal
- 39 minutes ago
- 1 min read
Kavya Sharma, KPMSOL NMIMS School of Law, Mumbai
Anubhav Sharma, KPMSOL NMIMS School of Law, Mumbai
ABSTRACT
Deepfakes pose significant challenges to misinformation and societal norms like truth and trust in India. The cultural emphasis on honor and reputation makes the population particularly sensitive to the negative impacts of deepfakes, which have led to defamation, financial fraud, scams, and heightened rates of suicide and violence, especially against women and certain communities. The lack of an effective legal framework to protect individual rights has only exacerbated these issues. Financial losses due to deepfakes are projected to exceed ₹70,000 crore by 2025, with a staggering increase in cybercrime rates related to this technology.
This paper explores how deepfakes undermine basic doctrines of defamation, fraud, and evidentiary reliability while proposing a personality rights- centered regulatory framework aligned with Article 21’s protections of dignity, privacy, and reputation. This approach aims to balance innovation and freedom of expression with necessary protections and accountability measures. Ultimately, the study underscores the urgent need to reform India's legal architecture to address the human costs associated with synthetic media.
