AI-Generated Deepfakes and Legal Accountability: Adequacy of Cyber Law Frameworks in India

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most disruptive technologies of the 21st century, affecting, challenging, and changing a myriad of areas, whether it be personal connection to the world, business, or governance. Among many forms of application is one of the most insidious aspects of AI, the use of deepfakes. Deepfakes uses AI methods, especially deep learning and generative adversarial networks (GANs) to manipulate audio-visual content in a manner that creates fake material that appears real. Although deepfake technology has legitimate uses in cinema, education, and accessibility, its potential for abuse should be taken seriously. The risks of deepfakes are not theoretical; they are real social and political harms. Indeed, deepfakes were used for the purposes of misinformation, disinformation, influencing election outcomes, reputational harm, and non-consensual pornographic material (which overwhelmingly targets women) in a variety of contexts, around the world. This is especially pressing in India where the expansion of digital access is growing quickly. With both an active and polarized political discourse and historically entrenched gender bias in many forms, the use of deepfake could carry significant and harmful risks. The recent coordination of morphed videos during elections, and deepfake materials used for harassing women demonstrate the immediacy of the risks and harms.1 This paper aims to analyze whether or not India's current cyber law framework, based on the Information Technology Act and its subsidiary regulations from 2000, is adequate to face these challenges. Then, by comparing India’s legal position with international best practice, it argues that there are some remedies available, but in a piecemeal and outdated fashion.