LIJDLR

DEEPFAKE TECHNOLOGY, CYBERSTALKING, AND ONLINE HARASSMENT- A GENDERED ANALYSIS OF CYBERCRIME AND VICTIM PROTECTION MECHANISMS IN INDIA

Aditi Singh Bhadauria, LLB 3rd year (6th semester) Student at Amity Law School, Lucknow Campus (India)

Dr. Rajeev Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor of Law (Sr. Grade), Amity Law School Lucknow (India)

This paper examines how artificial intelligence enabled deepfakes, cyberstalking, and online harassment operate as gendered cybercrimes in India and how existing victim protection mechanisms perform in practice. It maps the production and circulation pathways of synthetic audio visual content, the tactics of surveillance, impersonation, doxxing, and threats, and the platform dynamics that accelerate harm through anonymity, virality, and algorithmic reinforcement. Using a doctrinal and socio legal method, the study analyses constitutional protections of privacy, dignity, equality, and speech limits, and evaluates statutory responses under the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, and the post reform criminal law framework under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023. It further assesses intermediary due diligence obligations and emerging judicial trends on injunctions, takedowns, and victim centric reasoning. The findings highlight recurring implementation gaps, including delayed FIR conversion, uneven cyber policing capacity, weak preservation and certification of electronic evidence, cross border attribution barriers, and inconsistent platform response to repeat uploads. The paper proposes a calibrated reform blueprint that strengthens evidence first investigation protocols, improves portal to FIR workflows, expands compensation and confidentiality safeguards, and aligns platform governance with proportionality and due process. It also identifies future research priorities on prevalence measurement, intersectional impacts, and efficacy of provenance and transparency standards. Comparative insights from the EU, UK, and Australia illustrate risk based platform duties, deepfake disclosure norms, and administrative takedown models, while cooperation tools inform cross border electronic evidence requests.

📄 Type 🔍 Information
Research Paper LawFoyer International Journal of Doctrinal Legal Research (LIJDLR), Volume 4, Issue 1, Page 1315–1346.
🔗 Creative Commons © Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License . © Authors, 2026. All rights reserved.