Cyborg Bodies and Transnational Agenda: Sex Work, Artificial Intelligence, and Governance

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Published: Sep 18, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12681/dia.46968
Keywords:
datapolitics sex work deepfakes Legislature Digital Identity India New Zeeland
Raima Bhaumik
Christ University, Bengaluru, India
Kekhronguu Dazo
Assistant Professor Christ University, Bengaluru, India
Abstract

Legal understanding of sex work consists of the black and white idea of morality and labour. While India’s legal framework within The Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 operates under a rescue and rehabilitation foundation and New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act adopts a decriminalised, labour-oriented outlook, both remain grounded in a pre-digital understanding of the body as a bounded and physical entity. The paper examines how emerging artificial intelligence, particularly deepfakes and non-consensual sexual reproductions, harms and exposes critical gaps in the legislature and judiciary of sex work in India and New Zealand. Analysing India’s The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and New Zealand’s Deepfake Digital Harm and Exploitation Bill, 2025, the paper argues that the laws unevenly address AI-mediated exploitation. Drawing upon Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, Kamala Kempadoo’s Global Sex Workers and Michel Foucault’s Governance and Biopolitics, the paper reconceptualises sex workers as fragmented datafied subjects whose identities circulate beyond national and legal boundaries. The paper calls for a shift from bodily governance to the regulation of digital identities, consent, and representation in order to address the new-age AI vulnerabilities.

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