Confronting deepfakes

BEYOND REGULATION, THEY EXPRESS COMMITMENT TO GROUND DIGITAL FREEDOM IN ACCOUNTABILITY

- PAVAN DUGGAL

INDIAN CYBER LEGISLATION has reached a pivotal moment.

The draft changes to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, referred to simply as the IT Rules, represent a definitive legal answer to one of the most pressing issues facing our digital society: the emergence of deepfakes and artificially created content.

Indian law now officially recognises “synthetically generated information” for the first time. This is material that has been modified or produced using artificial intelligence (AI) to look genuine. This acknowledgment goes beyond mere terminology. It confirms that legal frameworks must adapt to safeguard truth in an era where AI-generated fabrications can convincingly mimic reality.

We are living in a digital world where simply seeing, hearing, or reading something online does not necessarily mean it is authentic. Deepfakes, cloned voices, and synthetic media corrupt public conversation damage reputations and undermine democratic confidence. In this context, the new IT Rules Amendments 2025 demonstrate a forward-thinking legislation, bringing India's digital regulation in line with the challenges of synthetic deception.

What makes these proposed amendments particularly strong is their precision. They provide an explicit definition of synthetically generated content and impose a legal obligation on intermediaries to ensure such material is properly labelled. This is not just administrative red tape. It represents India’s legal acknowledgment that transparency is both an ethical imperative and a regulatory requirement. When content has been digitally manipulated, users have a fundamental right to be informed.

Due diligence and burden of transparency