Human Rights Doctrines and Deepfake Technology: An Analysis of Abusive Digital Applications in Conflict with Human Dignity, Privacy, and Freedom of Expression

Mohammadi, Amid; Ghodrati, Mohammad Hasan

Human Rights Doctrines and Deepfake Technology: An Analysis of Abusive Digital Applications in Conflict with Human Dignity, Privacy, and Freedom of Expression

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Amid Mohammadi ¹

Mohammad Hasan Ghodrati ²

¹ Assistant professor at law in Jahrom University.

² Department of Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Law, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Jahrom University, ‎Jahrom

Abstract

The emergence of deepfake technology—as an application of generative artificial intelligence—has introduced unprecedented challenges to the contemporary legal order in the domain of human rights protection. By virtue of its capacity to generate hyper-realistic simulated content, this technology undermines the epistemological and ethical foundations of society, while severely disrupting democratic processes and information security. The central research question concerns the extent of legal protection available against the activities of anonymous virtual actors, and whether existing normative frameworks are adequate to address the novel dimensions of this threat. Employing an analytical-comparative methodology, this article first delineates the concept and functioning of deepfake technology, then proceeds to examine the relationship between human rights frameworks and this phenomenon, and subsequently evaluates its attendant legal challenges. Furthermore, the study scrutinizes various dimensions of human rights violations across three distinct spheres: human dignity, privacy, and freedom of expression. The findings indicate that deepfake technology—beyond its technical dimensions—operates as an instrument of power in the hands of anonymous agents, thereby jeopardizing the established human rights order at both the normative and enforcement levels, and rendering existing legal responses fundamentally inadequate. Ultimately, this article underscores the urgent necessity of developing a supra-legal framework—grounded in transnational cooperation and a dynamic interpretation of human rights doctrines—to contain the anti-rights potentials inherent in this technology.

Keywords

Deepfake

Human Rights

Human Dignity

Privacy

Freedom of Expression

Subjects

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