This article is written by Yogita, BA-LLB,MVN University, Palwal during her internship at LeDroit India.
Abstract
Deep Fakes are a serious cause of concern in many areas such as disinformation, defamation, financial fraud, non-consensual pornography, and national security since they can modify and validate videos, audio, and photos. Although some laws provide some related contents, such as sections 66C, 66D, 67, 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000; 499, 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, in theory, the current legislation in India is inadequate to handle deep fake misuse.The challenges are the threshold of the attribution, technical complexity, high rates of proliferation, demonstrating intent, jurisdiction, and the freedom of expression against harm prevention. This article suggests a multi-dimensional strategy that entails the specific deepfake legislation, enhancement of the current laws, compulsory watermarking, creation of detection mechanisms, international collaboration, and education. The creation of regulatory institutions, the emphasis on will and damage, and the clarification of the responsibility of platforms are also the issues that matter to reduce risks related to deep fakes and to be in the realm of responsibility in the era of digital transformation.
Introduction
Deepfakes are a fast-growing technology of AI-generated media able to deceive or forge audio, video ,and images. It is a technology that creates very pronounced dangers in different spheres, and hence a strong set of legal categories must be put in place to combat its abuse. This paper will discuss the legal issues of deep fakes, analyze some of the case laws and other laws that can be used to deal with deepfakes on a legal front, and also what challenges must be faced to deal with AI based dangers.
The nature of Deepfakes and Deep Fake threats Explained
Although the addressing technology has some sound uses, it is worrying that its malicious use is possible.The following are some of the critical risks of deep fakes:
Disinformation and Misinformation: Deepfakes may be utilized to spread fake news and propaganda, shift the opinion of most people, and even shape the outcome of elections, as well as influence social upheavals. Pleasured videos of politicians or other people in reasonable positions saying provocative things or promoting misinformation can go viral and may cause tremendous harm before they can be disproven or proved untrue.
Damage to reputation and defamation: People can be portrayed in embarrassing or slanderous scenarios that did not happen and these cases result in extreme loss of reputation, emotional stress and even monetary losses. This needs to be of great concern to the figures in public but regular citizens are also at risk.
Financial Fraud: Deepface audio and video may be used to defraud money by impersonating someone and persuade employees to send money out or to obtain unauthorized money access. The voice cloning technology has very scary precision as it can replicate the voice of a person and this technology could be used to conduct advanced social engineering schemes.
Non-Consensual Pornography and Harassment: Deepfakes have been popularly used to make non-consensual pornography, where a person puts his/her face over some pornographic video. This exploitation of sexual nature is extremely toxic and may lead to the deadly psychological effects on the victim.Deepfakes may be used to specifically bully and harass.
Threats to National Security: The potential exists that state and non-state actors could attempt to make propaganda, propagate disinformation, and Chaos in the countries that are considered adversaries, through the use of deep fakes. The hoax video of military persons or political spokesmen or women might be employed to provoke a global conflict or to destroy the level of confidence in the honest state of affairs.
Latest Legal Context and its Constraints
Although the current Indian legal system already covers the issue around the harms that deep fakes cause to an extent, it cannot be considered an effective solution.A number of laws and provisions can be applied, though their validity and usefulness to address the threats of deepfakes and deal with them are restricted:
IT Act, Information Technology Act, 2000:
Section 66A (Struck Down): Section 66A, which prescribed punishment to those who sent offensive messages through communication services, was, when it was still in force, struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of freedom of speech.
Section 66C (Identity Theft): This is the section which imposes a punishment where the person is guilty of using an electronic signature, electronic password or any other electronic unique identification feature falsely and intentionally. On the one hand, it may work when a person wants to use deepfakes to conduct a financial fraud through impersonation; on the other hand, its application is narrowed down to specific names and identifiers.
Section 66D (Cheating by Personation): This section punishes the causing of cheating through personation by the help of computers. Fraud of deep fakes against people with a purpose of obtaining a gain might be an occasion where it might be applied.
Section 67 (Publishing or Transmitting Obscene Material): This section is a provision about publication or transmission of obscene material in electronic form. To some extent, deep fake pornography might fit into this category, but the meaning of obscenity often is easy to prove yet to determine.
Section 67A (Publishing or Transmitting of Material Containing Sexually Explicit Act): This section is aimed exclusively at criminalizing the publication or transmission of sexually explicit act. This would most probably include any Deepfake non-consensual pornography.
Section 67C (Preservation and Retention of Information by Intermediaries): The section imposes the duty on the intermediaries to keep jand collect some information.It may be applicable in making demands. fully use platforms to store information that may give a clue to the origin of deep fakes.
Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules, 2021: These regulations impose upon intermediaries to remove content on social media. illegal material, such as defamatory , obscene, and illegal material, including an infringement of, inter alia, the law: rights over intellectual property. Nevertheless, the efficiency of such rules is quite low. How proactive we will be in combating deepfakes is yet to be determined, especially in view of the rate of their contagion.
Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita,2023 (BNS):
Section 354 (Defamation): This section stipulates what is meant by defamation and says to provide for. its punishment. The deep fakes that have negative effects on the reputation of a person may consist of practicable under this provision. Intent and the causal link are however difficult to prove. This may be tricky since the reputational injury of the one may be in-between the deepfake.
Section 356 (Punishment of Defamation): The section defines the sentence of defamation. the crime of defamation.
Section 351 (Criminal Intimidation): In case of threat, deep fakes have been used to threaten anyone. to intimidate a person, this bit may be used.
Section 79 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman): the result of her picking up at night without her permission might be considered to fall under this provision. its main attention is in the physical deeds or gestures. ○
Provisions relating to Forgery and Cheating (e.g. Section 292, 293, 318): In case of using deepfakes to produce forged documents or to (318): In case deep fakes are utilized to generate forged documents or to persuade people to lose money or assets, these parts might be relevant. But, when using these classical ideas to the new novel, on the other hand, means intensifying your desire to know more of it, and thrilling your curiosity. deepfake technology is a healthily interpreted technology
Copyright Act, 1957:
In case deep fakes use a copyrighted material, deep fakes will be considered a crime without the permission, the producers might face copyright charges. However, the revolutionary potential of deep fakes may become a difficult question on fair use and derived ones.
Personal Data Protection Bill (And bill is under consideration):
It is not yet a law but the bill is under consideration. Personal data Protection bill is a bill proposed to be enacted in order to secure personal data of individuals. In case, deepfakes concern the unauthorized use of the biometric data of a particular person (e.g., It (facial features, voice) may also fall under this law when the government decides to make it, however. enacted.
Case Laws and their relevance
In India, the applying of case laws concerning deep fakes has yet to emerge. However, some the pre-existing legal precedents give an understanding of the approach that could be applied by courts to the cases killing -involves altered online media and internet based abuse:
Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015): Making the breaking point was this landmark case that resulted in the striking Section 66A of IT Act down and stated that there is significance of speech freedom and expression. The case demonstrates how crucial precisely customized legislation is. the particular evils of deepfakes to limit, unnecessarily, possibly legitimate online expression.
K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v. Union of India (2017): In this case, the right to privacy as a basic right. Deepfakes attacks the privacy of an individual person, such as the sharing and distribution of non-consensual pornography, can be disputed According to this right. Courts of law concerning situations of defamation on social media have ruled that defamation on social media is indeed considered as an online situation. All publications are defamatory, and publishers with any intermediary cannot be held to exercising any liability. circumstances. It is possible to apply these precedents in deepfake cases. videos that ridicule people.
Instances of digital image/video misuse that are aimed at harassment or blackmail have been ruled under a number of sections of the IPC and the IT Act. Such cases give us a chance of knowing how the courts can handle in case the primary use of deepfakes will be destructive.
Issues of Implementation of the Existing Laws in Deep Fakes
When trying to deal with the threat of deep lakes in the present legal framework, there are several challenges to consideration:
Attribution and Anonymity: The persons behind the creation and transmission of deep fakes may be very hard to determine since the Internet followed by the advanced technology of disguising the origin cannot be ignored.
Technical Complexity: As deeply as technicalities are involved in deepface creation and detection, one must be conversant with them to succeed in their legal process. This involves specialist skills which are not necessarily easily available in a legal system.
Blistering Growth: Deepfakes may go viral on the Internet and it may prove hardly possible to control their effects and punish offenders in time.
Knowledge and Mens Rea: The knowledge and mens rea needed to bring a charge in different offenses may prove to be tricky when it comes to deep fakes as there may not be sufficient evidence of intent.
Jurisdictional Problems: The lack of jurisdiction in the internet marks a problem in terms of jurisdiction, especially when deepfakes are produced or circulated off Indian soil. Walking the thin line between Freedom of Speech and
Expression and the first loss: Finding the balance between safeguarding the freedom of speech and expression, and ensuring that deep fakes are not abused in real harm to people must be a very important challenge that policymakers face and the judicial system must be addressed.
Suggested Legal and Policy Items
In order to adequately address the menace of deep fakes, it is essential to use a multi-layered strategy that entails This should be done through legislative reforms, technological solutions, and mass-education. Possible measures are:
Specific Legislation on Deep Fakes: The point is to have specific laws based on deep fakes. covers the production, distribution and application of deepfakes with malevolent intent. This legislation is to establish what deepfakes are, list forbidden practices, and dictate appropriate penalties.
Prevention: Amendment of the current laws, including the law on Information Technology and the Indian Penal Code to clearly cover the crimes associated with deepfake and make them clear. This may consist of certain expositions of the formation and propagation of malicious deep fakes, increased criminal sanctions against their abuse and measures regarding liability of their creators. intermediaries who are responsible for not removing harmful deepfakes in a timely manner.
Enforced Watermarking and Provenance tracing: Enforcement of the regulations which necessitate the watermarking and inclusion of media, which has been digitally created or manipulated. metadata that enables one to trace its source. This may allow determining the cause of deep fakes and preventing their ill use. Investing in research and development of
Detection Technologies: strengthening the capabilities to detect deepfakes and providing them with law enforcement bodies and sites on the Internet.
International Cooperation: Working along with international organizations and others create an agreement between countries to create familiar legal frameworks and relay information on deepfake aggressors and attackers.
Public Awareness and Media Literacy Campaigns: Enlightenment of the population on the: the threats of deep fakes and encouraging media literacy abilities to enable people to recognize and soundly scrutinize what is found online
Development of Regulatory Authorities: The creation of expert regulatory bodies or task forces to keep a watch on the changing state and application of deepfake technology, research into deep fake crimes, and offer advisories on legal and ethical questions.
Emphasis on Intent and Harm: The legislative systems must be centered on the purpose of the creation and sharing of deep fakes and the real and actual damage to the person or society.
Preventing Non-Consensual Deep Fake Pornography: Passing laws with strict penalties on the mere act of creating and sharing non-consensual deep fake pornography and understanding the extreme detriments it has on the targeted victims.
Platform Liability: What responsibilities and Liabilities Online Platforms Have in Regarding Deepfakes, and What they may have regarding free expression on their platforms. These might include obliging platforms to provide a means through which users can report deepfakes and a reasonable time in which harmfully established deep fakes should be taken down.
Conclusion
Deep Fakes are a prevalent and growing matter to reckon in the digital world. The extent to which the existing law in India provides relief against the damage of their misuse is meager and hence is not sufficient to tackle the specialized risks and challenges presented by this technology. It requires a multifold and active solution that will include a particular law, amendments to the current law, of a technical nature, of an international nature and of a public information one. With the efficient and early action, India will be able to reduce the risks that deep fakes pose and protect its people, institutions, and processes of democracy against manipulation and damage caused by AI.Formulation of explicit legal standards and their successful implementation will play a pivotal role in guiding the messy terrain of synthetic media and holding its misusers responsible.
