President Droupadi Murmu gave assent to the Digital Deepfake Prevention Act on Thursday, making India one of the first major democracies to enact comprehensive standalone legislation targeting AI-generated synthetic media.
The law mandates that all AI-generated images, audio, and video distributed online must carry a machine-readable watermark and a visible disclosure label. Platforms that fail to detect and label deepfakes within 24 hours of a complaint face fines of up to 2% of annual India revenue.
Criminal Provisions
Creating or distributing non-consensual intimate deepfakes carries a maximum sentence of seven years. Election-related deepfakes distributed within 48 hours of polling attract an automatic three-year minimum sentence. The law also creates a new Digital Media Forensics Unit under the Home Ministry.