Deepfake Manipulation and Criminal Responsibility: A Cyber Analysis of Creation and Sharing of Deepfakes

Deepfake technology is an artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technology used to create hyper-realistic social imagery, videos, and audio records. This technology will be used to create materials that sound and appear to be produced by an actual human being through its use of face-swapping algorithms and voice-cloning methods. Although deepfakes were created as an entertainment and creative tool, they have also been used more often in a more fraudulent and unlawful way, such as identity theft, non-consent pornography, and spreading misinformation. These innovations have been a cause of concern in the sphere of cyber law. As a paper that examines criminal responsibility, it discusses the creation and distribution of deepfake content through the lens of the current laws on cyber law. Along with the continually growing sophistication of deepfake technology and its accessibility, this threat is growing to the personal privacy, honour, and credibility, becoming a powerful tool of blackmail, defamation, and reputation damage, which is not inherently limited to prominent individuals but also to ordinary citizens. The research takes three important dimensions. First, it discusses the legal ambiguity on the questions of jurisdiction, as the deepfake technology is reported to work well across the borders of countries but the information technology laws do not provide substantial measures to determine the cross-border cyber disputes. Second, it assesses the sufficiency of the current laws, which do not introduce a clear definition of deepfakes and a full-scale regulatory system. Third, it investigates the necessity of controlling the platforms, software that allow creating deepfakes, and not only the content that is produced, and suggests possible legislative enhancements.