Deepfake Technology and Cyber Harm: A Conceptual Framework Linking Legal Regulation, Ethical Compliance, and Social Protection

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has accelerated deepfake technology, which offers new creative possibilities but also raises significant ethical, legal and social issues. The growing misuse of deepfakes as for identity theft, misinformation, cyber harassment, financial fraud, electoral manipulation, and intellectual property infringement has exposed serious deficiencies in current legal systems, which remain fragmented, reactive, and inadequate to address the evolving nature of AI-generated cyber harms. Previous studies have looked at the ethical and legal issues of deepfake technology separately, but few have brought these together into an overarching governance framework to clarify the function of legal regulation in enhancing social protection. Therefore, this study is intended to construct a conceptual framework that connects legal regulation, ethical compliance, and social protection to lessen the adverse effects of deepfake technology in digital environments. The study adopted a narrative review methodology to critically synthesise multidisciplinary literature from the Scopus database on law, artificial intelligence, ethics, cybersecurity, governance and public policy. Thematic analysis of the study identifies three key concepts, namely legal regulation, ethical compliance and social protection, that were integrated into a theoretically grounded framework based on AI Governance Theory. The findings show that statutory regulation is not enough to effectively regulate deepfake technology. Instead, ethical compliance is conceptualised as a mediating mechanism that promotes accountability, transparency, fairness, responsible AI development and institutional governance, thereby increasing the effectiveness of legal regulation and ultimately improving social protection from cyber-related risks. The study contributes to the theoretical framework of AI Governance Theory by integrating ethical and legal governance procedures into a single conceptual paradigm. Practically, it provides guidance to legislators, regulators, technology developers, digital platforms and policymakers who wish to develop comprehensive governance strategies to increase digital trust, protect fundamental rights and improve society’s resilience to the risks posed by deepfake technology.