New Delhi: A landmark legislative effort has emerged in the Indian Parliament with the introduction of a Private Member’s Bill seeking to criminalise the creation and dissemination of malicious deepfake content made without the subject’s consent.
The proposed statute, titled The Regulation of Deepfake Bill, 2024, has garnered widespread attention from policymakers, digital rights experts, legal scholars and civil society amidst growing global concerns over Artificial intelligence-driven misinformation, privacy erosion and potential threats to democratic processes.
What is Regulation of Deepfake Bill, 2024
The Bill, moved in the Lok Sabha by Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Eknath Shinde, outlines a statutory framework aimed at regulating AI-generated synthetic media — commonly referred to as deepfakes — that deceptively depicts individuals saying or doing things they never did.
Under this legislation:
- Creation and dissemination of deepfakes without prior consent or without embedded digital watermarks would be recognised as criminal offences in certain aggravated scenarios.
- The Bill emphasises mandatory prior consent from individuals whose likeness, voice or persona are used in generated content.
- It introduces the concept of “digital content forgery” and directs the use of digital watermarking to establish traceability and authenticity of synthetic media.
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However, the Bill does not yet prescribe specific prison terms or fines; instead, it proposes that penalties be determined on a case-by-case basis by a proposed Deepfake Task Force and through rules framed by the appropriate government.
Key Areas of Offence
According to the Bill’s text and explanatory notes, malicious deepfakes would be criminalised under specified aggravated circumstances, including:
- Deepfakes containing sexually explicit or nude visual content intended to embarrass, harass or humiliate individuals.
- Content created with intent to incite violence, harm public order or interfere with official procedures such as elections.
- Deepfakes used in criminal activities, including fraud, identity theft, impersonation and other deceptive conduct.
These definitions align with growing global concerns about the use of AI tools to create non-consensual intimate imagery — a form of abuse increasingly identified in digital safety research and advocacy.
Regulation of Deepfake Bill, 2024: Establishing the Deepfake Task Force
A key institutional proposal within the Bill is the creation of a Deepfake Task Force, which would be established within six months of the Act’s commencement by the Central Government.
The Task Force’s responsibilities would include:
- Assessing impacts of deepfakes on national security, public trust and individual rights.
- Conducting research and enabling partnerships with academic, tech industry and civil society stakeholders to develop detection and mitigation technologies.
- Evaluating the effect of synthetic media on civic participation, including electoral integrity, and proposing regulatory recommendations.
- Facilitating coordination among central, state and private sector entities to strengthen digital content governance.
The task force model mirrors similar approaches debated in other legislative contexts, such as in Western democracies, where specialised units and regulatory bodies are proposed to counter deepfake misuse.
Why Lawmakers Are Acting Now
The Bill’s Statement of Objects and Reasons underlines the tension between legitimate uses of deepfake and AI technologies in entertainment, education and creative industries, and their harmful misuse for misinformation, harassment and deception.
Lawmakers noted that:
- The rapid proliferation of generative AI tools has made deepfakes more accessible and realistic.
- Existing digital laws, such as the IT Rules and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, while technology-neutral, do not specifically address AI-driven synthetic media crimes in a comprehensive way.
- There is heightened potential for malicious deepfakes to erode public trust, harm individual dignity and disrupt democratic processes if left unchecked.
Experts have increasingly echoed these concerns internationally, with debates on regulating AI-generated deepfakes featuring prominently in the United States and Europe as well.
For instance, the U.S. has passed laws targeting non-consensual deepfake intimate imagery and politically harmful synthetic media.
Looking Ahead: Next Steps in Parliament
As the Regulation of Deepfake Bill, 2024 enters further stages of parliamentary discussion, the coming weeks will likely see:
- Committee reviews and expert testimonies on feasible enforcement mechanisms.
- Debates on the scope of digital rights versus public safety.
- Potential amendments to harmonise existing cyber law with the new proposals.
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