Deepfakes and Digital Identity: Denmark’s Revolutionary Proposal on Copyright.
Artificial intelligence law, deepfakes, and digital identity protection: these are the new challenges facing the legal system in the world of advanced technology. Denmark is preparing to introduce innovative legislation that could revolutionize the way individuals are protected in the digital realm.
Deepfakes are audio or video content created using generative artificial intelligence that faithfully replicates a person’s appearance and voice, making them say or do things that never actually happened. This technology is used for legitimate purposes (entertainment, parody), but also for illicit ones: defamation, identity theft, revenge porn, and digital fraud.
Current legislation, which is based on privacy rights, defamation, and the protection of one’s image, is often inadequate for addressing these scenarios, as it does not account for the possibility of AI-simulated identity theft.
The Danish Parliament is considering a bill that aims to grant individuals copyright over their own likeness, voice, and physical features, treating these elements as intellectual works in their own right.
The main changes in the proposal:
Mandatory removal of deepfake content published without consent;
Right to compensation for damages resulting from the misuse of one’s digital identity;
Protection of freedom of expression, with parody and satire excluded from the scope of application.
This solution aims to strike a balance between technological innovation and the protection of fundamental rights, creating a model that could soon be adopted by other European countries.
Denmark has announced that it will promote this reform at the European level during its presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2025, as part of broader European strategies regarding the AI Act, personal data protection, and the regulation of artificial intelligence.
This new approach to protecting individuals in the digital world could also set an important precedent for:
the revision of digital copyright laws;
the evolution of the right to online personal identity;
integration with the regulations on the protection of biometric data.