Denmark Gave Its Citizens Copyright Over Their Faces — Why India Needs a Similar Law Against Deepfakes

Denmark has formulated significant changes to its copyright law, allowing its citizens to secure rights over their faces, voices, and even likenesses to tackle the creation and circulation of AI-generated deepfakes. The Danish government will allow citizens to sue AI companies offering deepfake technologies if they think their copyrighted personality has been stolen in what it believes is the first such law in Europe. While the new copyright law will promote a clampdown on deepfakes in Denmark, its implications signal similar tweaks to Indian laws.

Deepfakes in India are a brewing crisis

In the wake of recent cases where identities, especially the facial features, of popular actresses such as Rashmika Mandanna and Alia Bhatt were stolen and morphed to create explicit videos, India’s copyright laws are in urgent need of an overhaul. Deepfakes started as a benign way of political or cultural satire through AI. However, the technology took no time in becoming a powerful tool for disinformation, harassment, and fraud, often found targeting women, celebrities, and political figures.

Despite this, the current toolkit under India’s copyright law is outdated. The Information Technology Act (2000) and sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) provide victims some recourse, but they do not clearly define or criminalise the unauthorised synthetic replication of someone's identity, skirting around challenges like AI impersonation. The situation becomes more defenceless when such deepfakes do not qualify as “obscene” or “defamatory” under current thresholds.

Can Denmark’s landmark model help?

The new Danish law brings granular controls over personal features as part of revamped copyright laws, enabling citizens to secure rights against any misuse on the internet, even if it is powered by AI, as in the case of deepfakes. The updated laws do not solely rely on privacy or defamation frameworks, enforcing ownership on the face, voice, and identity of an individual.

Not only creation, but the law also penalises the circulation of such deepfakes on social networks, such as TikTok, Instagram, X, and YouTube, providing users more protection through a wider ambit. That means Denmark’s law gives its citizens the right to demand the removal of such content and prevent misuse, and failure to comply could invite action from the European Commission. Except for satire and parody to protect free speech, any non-consensual or manipulative use of an individual’s identity will attract legal action in Denmark.

A similar model in India would help protect the identities of citizens by enforcing AI firms to ramp up screening technology against deepfakes. The Danish law could also double as a case study for Indian courts to broaden the scope of the right to privacy as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Laws such as Section 66E of the IT Act, Section 67A, and Sections 500 and 509 of the BNS could become more useful with amendments by granting citizens ownership of their likenesses. International collaborations such as the G20, in tandem with local regulations such as the Digital India Act, could help push for likeness rights, platform accountability, and AI transparency as cornerstones of future copyright regulation.

India should take note of what Denmark has devised against deepfakes, and even though the current implications have largely targeted celebrities and politicians, its trenches run deep. According to a 2024 study by Deeptrace Labs, 96 per cent of deepfake content online is pornographic, featuring facial identities of women of less importance without their consent. As deepfakes become a serious issue, concrete changes in the law are more urgent than ever.

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