THE LIAR'S DIVIDEND AND DEEPFAKES: INTERNATIONAL AND INDIAN PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

Deepfake technology, which uses artificial intelligence to generate realistic audio and video forgeries, has raised new challenges for democratic governance, law enforcement and media trust. One particularly insidious consequence is the liar's dividend, the ability of wrongdoers to deny genuine evidence by claiming it is a deepfake. This paper examines the liar's dividend in a comparative context, drawing on international and Indian case studies. It reviews the literature on deepfakes and misinformation, defines the liar's dividend, and analyses real incidents in the United States, Europe and India in which authentic evidence was dismissed as fabricated. It reports global and Indian data on deepfake proliferation, public trust, and forensic capacity, and compares three legal regimes: India's Information Technology Act and allied provisions, the European Union's Artificial Intelligence Act and Digital Services Act obligations, and United States legislative proposals including the DEEPFAKES Accountability Act. The paper discusses the institutional and democratic implications of this trend, highlighting the erosion of trust and the empowerment of malign actors, and concludes with recommendations spanning technical defence, legal reform, platform governance, media literacy and multi-stakeholder coordination, including India's Deepfakes Analysis Unit.