Summary

As existing laws try to deal with deepfakes, the need for comprehensive personality‑rights protections is critical in India’s expanding creator economy to safeguard digital identities. Content labeling and watermarking, endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, could address the AI threat to influencers.

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In the past month, top influencers Bhuvan Bam, Payal Dhare (aka Payal Gaming), and Slayy Point’s Gautami Kawale and Abhyudaya Mohan have sought legal remedies against AI‑generated images and videos circulating on social media without consent. Some depicted obscene content while others intended commercial misuse of their identity, threatening the reputation these creators have built over years.

While Slayy Point and Bam secured takedowns through the Delhi High Court and Maharashtra’s cyber police arrested the maker of Dhare’s AI‑generated intimate video and made his identity public, none of these creators secured permanent personality‑rights protections—like podcaster Raj Shamani did in November 2025. This gap leaves influencers vulnerable in India’s booming ₹4,500 crore creator economy.

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What is the growing threat AI poses?

At a time when tech giants including Meta, Google, and X are racing to improve their AI tools and chatbots, their capabilities of generating sexually explicit deepfakes raise concerns. The Indian government issued a directive to micro‑blogging platform X to crack down on the misuse of its AI platform to generate and share “sexualised and obscene” images of women earlier in January.

A November 2025 report by cybersecurity firm McAfee found that 90 % of Indians have encountered fake or AI‑generated celebrity endorsements, with victims losing an average of ₹34,500 to such scams. The report added that 60 % of Indians have encountered AI‑generated or deepfake content from influencers and online personalities, not just mainstream celebrities.

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What are the legal provisions?

India is tackling this growing threat of AI deepfakes with existing laws that don’t single out AI but cover all such harms.

• Information Technology Act, 2000 – creates punishments for making deepfakes that impersonate someone, steal identities, invade privacy, or share obscene content.

• 2021 IT Rules – require social‑media platforms to remove misleading deepfakes, hate speech, or privacy‑violating posts within hours of complaints, label dubious AI tools, and allow users to appeal to government panels if ignored.

• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 – fines AI firms for using personal information without consent.

• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita – jails those spreading deepfake rumours that cause public panic.

• MeitY AI Governance Guidelines (Nov 2022) – regulate high‑risk AI systems, including deepfake generators, mandating declaration of AI‑generated content across platforms.

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How do AI fakes affect creators?

Influencers and online personalities have become valuable digital assets; their name, image, voice, and likeness drive commercial value through endorsements, sponsorships, and brand deals worth millions. Just as celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan or Anil Kapoor have long protected their “personality rights” in court against unauthorized misuse, influencers now seek similar safeguards against deepfakes, AI clones, or fake ads.

In a landmark November 2025 ruling, the Delhi High Court made podcaster Raj Shamani the first Indian influencer to secure comprehensive personality‑rights protection, restraining platforms from hosting AI‑generated videos, chatbots, or morphed content exploiting his persona without consent. The judgment affirmed that creators’ goodwill is a protectable form of intellectual property amid rising digital impersonation threats.

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Is there a bright side to AI?

Content creators are themselves using AI tools to build digital avatars, slash production time and costs, and boost creativity. Apps like ElevenLabs enable realistic voice cloning, allowing creators to generate natural‑sounding narrations or podcasts in seconds without studio sessions. OpenAI’s Sora crafts hyper‑realistic video clips from text prompts—turning a simple script into polished visuals that once required days of filming and editing.

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Are there any solutions?

A technical solution to the rising AI threat can be content labeling and watermarking, which embeds a visible or invisible identifier (such as a logo or unique code) into digital content—images, videos, or documents—to assert ownership, deter unauthorized use, and enable tracking.

In 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advocated for this approach in a conversation with Microsoft co‑founder Bill Gates. The IT ministry is expected to issue AI‑generated content‑labeling guidelines soon.