Denmark’s bold deepfake move is good for people

Denmark is advancing a first-of-its-kind rule in Europe: giving people copyright-style control over their own face and voice to fight deepfakes. In simple terms, if someone uses an AI system to imitate your likeness without consent, you would gain clear legal grounds to demand removal and seek compensation, while parody and satire remain protected. The proposal has broad political backing and is slated to move through consultation and adoption steps this year.

Why this matters for everyone (not just celebrities)

Deepfakes aren’t just a celebrity problem. They’re used to harass private individuals, scam consumers, and erode trust in public information. Denmark’s approach gives ordinary people a right that’s easy to understand—your face and voice are yours—and creates a practical path to remedy when lines are crossed. It also pushes platforms to act faster when notified, aligning with the EU’s broader platform duties under the Digital Services Act. In short: clearer rights for victims, clearer obligations for platforms, and fewer excuses for non-consensual AI impersonations.

A rights framework that complements, not replaces, existing rules

What Denmark is doing pairs well with other policy levers rather than trying to replace them. Copyright and related remedies can be powerful for takedowns and compensation; platform-duty regimes (like the DSA) address the speed and scale of removals; and the EU AI Act’s transparency provisions push the ecosystem toward labeling synthetic media. Together, these create both ex-post accountability (you can act if harmed) and ex-ante deterrence (bad actors know detection and enforcement are increasingly feasible). Legal commentators note that while copyright isn’t a perfect tool for personality rights, this hybrid approach can close urgent gaps created by generative AI.

How DeepMark helps platforms operationalize this law

Denmark’s proposal is ultimately about identity, provenance, and accountability. That’s exactly where DeepMark’s technology fits. We embed invisible, machine-verifiable IDs into AI-generated media and provide fast, privacy-preserving detection, so platforms can prove what’s authentic, and users can challenge what’s not.

A practical path forward

Denmark’s proposal is not just symbolism; it’s an implementation challenge. The winners will be the platforms that can prove origin and act quickly, without compromising privacy or slowing creative work. We’re ready to help product and policy teams do exactly that, with invisible IDs for outbound media, fast detection for inbound reports, and logs that stand up to scrutiny.

If you’re building AI media at scale and want to be ready for Denmark’s standard and what may follow across Europe, let’s talk about integrating origin assurance and provenance tags in a way your users never notice, but your policy team will love.