Do deepfakes, digital replicas and human digital twins justify personality rights?

Abstract

Unauthorised deepfakes are deeply problematic, from the spreading of misinformation to non-consensual pornographic content. This paper asks whether deepfakes, digital replicas and human digital twins justify personality rights. To address this question, it examines the harms that deepfakes can cause through disinformation, demeaning content and displacing creative workers. It demonstrates that the current UK legal patchwork of passing off, intellectual property, defamation, and criminal laws do not adequately address these harms. Therefore, it proposes the introduction of personality rights into UK law, in the form of an automatic unwaivable personality right for 70 years after the death of the person, with appropriate exceptions to protect freedom of expression. Deepfakes are the hinges on which to open the door of personality rights in the UK, for protection against the harms of unauthorised digital replicas.