Georgetown Law
Technology Review

Advancements in the development of deepfakes, synthetic media designed to appear authentic, have spawned a series of use cases ranging from the innocuously entertaining to the injuriously exploitative. On the latter end of this spectrum, a relatively understudied application is posthumous deepfakes, the digital manipulation of the image and likeness of the deceased. The content possibilities within this category, including for purposes as varied as celebrity productization and abusive puppeteering, are virtually limitless. But few remedial proposals for the deepfake phenomenon have fully accounted for the unique dignitary and property harms raised by posthumous deepfakes. This Note details those harms and considers the relevant remedies that may be pursued by surviving kin and other rightsholders associated with the deceased person being targeted. Based on current limitations with those remedies, this Note proposes that the tort of appropriation and the right of publicity are ideally suited to being statutorily federalized and reformed to protect the distinct dignitary and property interests implicated by posthumous deepfakes.

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