Deepfakes & AI Misinformation: What’s the Legal Framework?

Let me tell you about my buddy Rahul. He’s a software engineer, smart guy, very careful with money. Last year he got a call on his personal phone. The voice on the other end was his bank manager. Not some random person, but the actual voice of the specific guy who manages his account. The manager was saying “Sir, we’ve noticed some unusual transactions. We need you to verify your account details right now before we freeze everything.”

Rahul’s stomach dropped. His hand was actually shaking. The voice was so familiar. The tone was right. The urgency made sense. A $5,000 transaction had indeed just gone through that he didn’t recognize. Everything matched up. He was about to give his account password when something made him pause.

The manager asked for his PIN too, which seemed weird. Rahul said he needed to call back. He hung up and immediately called the bank’s main number. They told him they never called. Nobody from the bank called him. The entire thing was fake. Someone had created a deepfake of his bank manager’s voice to steal his money.

Think about that for a second. Rahul knows his bank manager. He’s heard that voice dozens of times. And he almost fell for it anyway because the deepfake was that good.

Then there’s my cousin Priya. She’s 24, just starting her career in marketing. She posted some regular photos on Instagram. Nothing inappropriate. Just normal social media stuff. Normal clothes, normal situations.

Then one day her mom called her absolutely freaking out. “Why are you sending explicit videos to random people online?” Priya had no idea what she was talking about. She went and looked. There were videos of her doing things she had never done, in situations that never happened. The videos looked like her. They moved like her. They were AI deepfakes created using her Instagram photos.

She told me about that experience a few months later and she was still shaking when she talked about it. She said the worst part wasn’t even the videos. It was knowing that someone spent time looking at her photos, studying her face, creating explicit content of her, and then uploading it. It violated her in a way that’s hard to explain.

The humiliation wasn’t just about the videos existing. It was about someone specifically targeting her and doing this to her. She cried for a week straight. She wanted to leave the country. It took her three weeks to even get the videos off the platform completely because they kept getting re-uploaded by other accounts.

Now imagine this happening to a major company. In Hong Kong in 2024, a financial firm got a video call. It was from their CEO. Well, it looked like the CEO. The video quality was perfect. The sound was clear.

The CEO was calling an emergency meeting about a pending investment. He explained that they needed to transfer $25 million to a specific account immediately to secure a deal. Everything seemed legitimate. The people on the call looked at each other and thought “Okay, that’s weird but the boss said do it.” The money went out.

An hour later, the real CEO came back from lunch and asked why the office was in chaos. Turns out nobody had called. There was no deal. There were no real executives on that video call. Someone had deepfaked the entire meeting. $25 million just vanished. Gone. Stolen by someone the company has never even met.

The cops got involved. The company brought in forensics experts. But here’s the thing: even the experts couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment you could say “this is definitely a deepfake.” That’s how good the technology has become. It’s not like the old Photoshop days where you could see the weird edges if you looked close enough. This technology is indistinguishable from reality.

These stories aren’t rare anymore. They’re not shocking anomalies. They’re becoming normal. Every single day, thousands of people are getting deepfake calls. Thousands of people are having their images used without permission. Thousands of people are losing money or their reputations or both.

And here’s what made it all even worse: five years ago, if this happened to you, the law couldn’t help you. There were no laws about this. None. The police would shrug. The platforms would say “sorry, we can’t do anything.” You’d be completely alone. Even now, most of the legal protections are brand new. They’re so new that a lot of people don’t even know they exist.

What We’re Actually Dealing With

So what exactly is a deepfake? It’s basically a video or audio recording that AI creates to make someone look like they’re doing something they never did. The technology analyzes tons of real footage of a person, learns how they move their mouth, the exact tone of their voice, the way they gesture, and then generates completely new footage that looks completely convincing.

The thing that makes deepfakes so dangerous isn’t just that they look real. It’s how fast they spread. Someone can create a deepfake at 10 AM and by noon it’s been shared 50,000 times. By evening, millions of people have seen it. When it gets fact checked and removed, the damage is already done. People remember the fake video, not the correction.

My neighbor Amir works in PR and he told me about a client who had deepfake videos made of him saying racist things. The videos weren’t real. But the PR firm spent three months trying to clean up the damage. By then, his reputation was destroyed anyway. He lost business, clients, everything. Eventually he proved the videos were fake, but that didn’t undo the harm.

The legal problem is huge though. All the laws about spreading false information, protecting people’s images, protecting privacy? They were written way before anyone was even thinking about AI creating fake videos. These old laws just don’t fit the problem anymore.

The Damage Is Real and It’s Everywhere

You want to understand how bad this has gotten? Look at the numbers. Researchers found that 99 percent of all sexual deepfakes are of women and girls. Not 99 percent of deepfakes are sexual. 99 percent of sexual deepfakes depict women and girls. That’s basically all of them.

And we’re not talking about small numbers here. In just the first six months of 2025, child sexual abuse material created with AI jumped 400 percent compared to the same time in 2024. We’re talking about 1,286 videos in six months. And most of them looked real. Devastatingly real.

The sexual abuse angle is the worst, but it’s not the only problem. Financial fraud is exploding too. In 2024, criminals stole $347 million just in the second quarter using deepfake voice and video calls. That’s one quarter. They called company executives and employees, impersonated their bosses, and told them to wire money. Because the voice and video matched perfectly, people did it.

Think about your workplace. If you got a video call from your CEO, would you really question it? Of course not. You’d probably do whatever they asked. That’s exactly what’s happening.

Then there’s the political side. During the 2024 New Hampshire primary, thousands of voters got phone calls from someone who sounded exactly like President Biden. The voice told them not to bother voting. It worked. People believed it and didn’t go vote.

And finally there’s just the basic reputational destruction. A Chinese tech CEO had deepfake videos made of him during a major Chinese holiday. The videos went viral. Over 200 million people saw them. Even though he eventually proved they were fake, the damage took months to recover from.

The Law Is Finally Starting to Respond (Sort Of)

Okay so here’s the thing. The law is finally catching up. It’s messy and incomplete, but there are actual laws now. And they have real teeth. The biggest federal law is something called the TAKE IT DOWN Act, which the president signed in May 2025. This law makes it illegal to share non-consensual intimate imagery, including AI deepfakes. That’s the main thing. But the really important part is that it requires social media platforms to remove this stuff within 48 hours once you report it.

Before this law, you could report a deepfake video of yourself and social media companies would just ignore you. I know someone this happened to. The video was up for months. The company kept saying they’d look into it. They never did. Now they have to remove it within two days or the government can fine them.

There are other laws being worked on too. There’s the DEFIANCE Act which would let victims of non-consensual sexual deepfakes actually sue in court for money damages. We’re talking up to $250,000 that a victim could receive. That’s huge because right now it’s really hard to sue anyone for anything related to deepfakes.

There’s also the NO FAKES Act which would protect your right to your own face and voice. The idea is simple: your face is yours. Your voice is yours. No one should be able to use them without your permission.

How Different States Are Handling This

At the state level, things are getting serious. Almost every state has some kind of deepfake law now. But they all did it differently, which creates a mess.

Tennessee passed the ELVIS Act. It says you can’t use AI to copy someone’s voice without permission. But they included a parody defense, meaning if something is clearly a joke or satire, you’re okay. That matters because it protects comedy and satire from being illegal.

New York has the Digital Replica Law. If you want to create a digital version of someone’s face or voice, they have to sign a written consent form. There has to be a contract. You have to pay them. That’s it. Pretty straightforward.

Pennsylvania just made it a crime to create or share deepfakes with intent to defraud or injure someone. If you get caught, it’s up to five years in jail. If you use it to steal money, it’s seven years and $15,000 fine. People are starting to face actual prison time for this.

Washington State criminalized intentional use of forged digital likeness. Up to a year in jail and $5,000 fine. Texas went after election deepfakes specifically. If you use a deepfake to interfere with voting or elections, you’re committing a crime. That was clearly a response to what happened in New Hampshire with the Biden robocall.

California requires AI-generated content in advertising to be clearly labeled. If you’re using a deepfake to sell something, people have to know it’s a deepfake.

The problem is that none of these states talk to each other. One state says it’s okay if it’s obviously satire. Another state doesn’t have that defense. One state requires written consent for using your voice. Another doesn’t. This creates massive confusion for anyone operating across state lines.

Europe Is Actually Ahead of America Here

The European Union passed the AI Act and it’s actually pretty aggressive. It says AI-generated content has to be labeled and disclosed. The fines are brutal. Up to 35 million euros or 7 percent of your global revenue, whichever is bigger. That gets companies’ attention really fast.

France is even stricter. They’re requiring clear labeling of AI-generated images on social networks. If you don’t label something as AI-generated and you should have, you get fined. Platforms that don’t remove clearly fake content get hit with huge fines. The UK made it illegal to create sexually explicit deepfakes of people without consent. If you’re caught making them, you can go to prison for two years.

But Denmark is doing something really clever. They’re treating people’s faces and voices as intellectual property. Your face belongs to you, like a copyright or trademark belongs to a company. This means if someone uses your face in a deepfake without permission, it’s the same as copyright infringement. And companies are terrified of copyright lawsuits. So this approach actually works way better than privacy laws or defamation laws.

China’s approach is also worth mentioning. They require explicit written consent before using anyone’s image or voice in synthetic media. And they mandate that all deepfake content be clearly labeled. It’s straightforward but effective.

Who Actually Gets in Trouble When This Happens

This is where it gets complicated. Because the answer is: it depends, and sometimes nobody. Obviously the person who created the deepfake is liable. If you intentionally create a fake video to harm someone, knowing full well it’s fake, you can face criminal charges. But here’s the problem: the creator is usually anonymous. They hide behind fake accounts and VPNs. Good luck finding them.

The person who shares it can be liable too. If you share a deepfake knowing it’s fake, with intent to deceive, you’re spreading harm. Many states now hold you responsible for that. But what about the platform? What about Facebook, Instagram, TikTok?

For a long time, US law said platforms weren’t responsible for content their users posted. That’s changing now. Platforms have to respond to complaints about non-consensual intimate imagery. They’re getting sued by victims and they’re facing government enforcement. This is forcing them to invest in detection technology.

The EU is stricter. Platforms can be fined heavily for failing to remove harmful content.

My friend Vishal had a deepfake created of his wife. When they reported it to the platform, it took two weeks to get it removed. Under the new law, they had a legal right to demand removal within 48 hours. If the platform didn’t comply, his wife could have sued them.

The Biggest Problem: The Law Still Has Huge Gaps

Despite all these new laws, there are massive problems that stop victims from actually getting justice. First, speed. A deepfake can go viral in hours. Even if a platform removes it within 48 hours, tens of millions of people have already seen it. And once it’s out there, other people re-upload it. The original gets removed but the copies stay up. You’re chasing ghosts.

Second, proof. Many laws require you to prove actual damages. If someone shares a sexual deepfake of you, yes, you can sue. But you have to prove that it cost you money. Maybe you lost a job? Maybe you lost clients? You have to quantify the harm. That’s expensive and takes forever and is really hard.

Third, people hide. The person who created the deepfake disappears. They create a new account with a new name. They’re gone. Prosecuting someone you can’t find doesn’t help.

Fourth, detection. There’s no universal agreed upon way to prove something is a deepfake. There are tools, but they’re not perfect. Sometimes they miss obvious fakes. Sometimes they flag real videos as fake. And as the technology improves, detection gets harder.

My cousin went through this. She reported the deepfake videos of herself to multiple platforms. One platform said “We can’t confirm this is fake so we’re not removing it.” Another platform said “We removed it but thousands of copies exist.” She spent weeks just trying to get one platform to do the right thing.

What’s Actually Going to Change in 2026

Here’s what experts are predicting will happen in the next year. Some of this is already starting but it’s going to accelerate. First, spending on deepfake detection technology is going to jump 40 percent in 2026. Companies are getting scared. They’re going to invest heavily in tools that can actually detect when a video or audio is fake.

Second, by May 2026, every platform that allows user uploads has to have a clear system for reporting deepfakes and handling those reports. They have to document it. They have to show that they’re taking it seriously.

Third, criminals are commercializing deepfake creation. There are now services where you can basically order a deepfake. You pay money, describe what you want, and they create it. It’s called Deepfake-as-a-Service. In 2026, this is going to be a much bigger problem. Criminals who don’t have technical skills will start using these services.

Fourth, executives are going to rethink how public they are. If you’re a CEO posting videos on LinkedIn, criminals can use those videos to train deepfake models of you. Companies are going to start restricting what their executives share publicly.

Fifth, biometric verification is going to become standard in high-risk situations. If you’re doing a banking transaction or a major business deal, you might need to prove you’re actually who you say you are through multiple verification methods. Simple video calling won’t be enough.

Sixth, Europol estimates that 90 percent of online content may be AI-generated by 2026. Not deepfakes specifically, but AI-generated content in general. Think about that. 90 percent. You’re going to have to become skeptical of everything.

Seventh, more people are going to face real prison time for creating and sharing deepfakes. What’s been happening mostly in the news is going to become normal. You make a malicious deepfake, you go to jail. That’s just what happens.

Eighth, watermarking and content authentication standards are going to become normal. If you create a piece of content, it’s going to be marked as authentic. That way, if someone tries to use it to create a deepfake, you can prove you created the real version.

What This Actually Means for You

Let me break this down by type of person. If you’re a business owner or executive: You’re at risk. Criminals can create deepfakes of you saying things that never happened. They can impersonate you in video calls and steal money or data. You should be documenting the authenticity of important internal communications.

You should have some way to verify that video calls with your team are actually real. You should have a crisis response plan ready because this could happen to you tomorrow.

If you’re a content creator or public figure: You’re at especially high risk because your face and voice are everywhere. Good news is the law is starting to protect you. Tennessee’s law protects your voice. California’s laws protect how your image is used. The trend is moving toward treating your face as your property.

Monitor where your image appears online. Understand the consent laws where you work. Report unauthorized uses. If you’re in politics or running for office: Election deepfakes are specifically criminalized now. Platforms have to remove them quickly. But use this carefully. False accusations about deepfakes can be weaponized too. Have a rapid response team that can verify media. Work with platforms directly.

If you’re a regular person: If someone makes a non-consensual sexual deepfake of you, that’s now a federal crime. Report it to the platform and they have to remove it within 48 hours. If they don’t, report it to the Federal Trade Commission. Document everything. Take screenshots. Get legal help.

My friend Sarah dealt with this and she said the new law was the first time she felt like she actually had legal protection. Before, she had nothing. Now platforms have to respond. It’s not perfect but it’s way better.

What’s Coming and What Still Needs to Happen

The trend is clear. Countries are moving toward stronger protections. Europe is leading. The US is catching up. Other countries are following. The Denmark model is gaining traction. Treat your face and voice as your property. Simple. People understand property rights. Companies understand copyright. That framework already exists. Just extend it to people’s biometric identity.

There’s emerging international consensus on some things. Consent matters. You should control your image. Platforms have responsibility. They can’t be passive. And intent matters but it should be balanced with transparency. Satire and parody should be protected but clearly labeled.

But hard questions remain. How do you balance free speech against protecting people from identity theft? How much can you restrict satire? What about deepfakes created for news or education? These questions aren’t settled yet.

What I think is going to happen in 2026 is that the discussion is going to shift. Right now we’re still debating whether deepfakes should be illegal. In 2026, we’re going to be debating how strictly to enforce the laws and how to balance different values. That’s actually progress.

The Real Picture

Look, deepfakes are genuinely scary. They can destroy someone’s reputation in hours. They can steal millions of dollars. They can distribute sexual abuse material. They can interfere with elections. The technology is advancing and it’s becoming easier to use.

But the legal system is responding. Laws are being passed. Platforms are being forced to take action. Detection technology is improving. Companies are investing. Governments are cooperating.

It’s not perfect. There are still gaps. There’s still too much anonymity online. There’s still not enough enforcement. But the trajectory is right. If you’re a victim of a deepfake, you have legal options now that you didn’t have a year ago.

If you’re creating deepfakes with malicious intent, you’re facing real consequences that are getting more serious every month. If you’re a platform, you have legal obligations that you can’t ignore.

The era of the law being completely unprepared for deepfakes is ending. The era of the law trying to figure out how to handle them is beginning. And that matters.

My advice? Document everything. Take screenshots. Report violations immediately. Seek legal help if you need it. Understand that the law is still evolving but it’s on your side more than it used to be. And if you’re thinking about creating a malicious deepfake, understand that the risk of serious consequences is real and growing every month.

We’re living through a strange time where reality itself is becoming questionable. But we’re also living through a time when society is actually trying to protect people from that. That’s something.