The Delhi High Court on Friday said it will order immediate deletion of a deepfake video created using an AI tool that falsely depicts Congress leader Shashi Tharoor as making politically sensitive statements.
Justice Mini Pushkarna also said that she will also issue directions to restrain the organization from misusing Tharoor’s personality and thereby protect his personality rights.
“The order will be passed. It will be uploaded,” Justice Pushkarna told Tharoor’s lawyer Amit Sibal.
The court issued this direction while hearing Mr. Tharoor’s case seeking protection of his personality rights by restraining companies from exploiting his persona without his consent.
Following this, Tharoor’s lawyer Amit Sibal submitted that his client’s identity was misused to create deepfake videos containing politically sensitive statements, thereby damaging his reputation.
He also told the court that although several fact-checks confirmed the video was fake, its continued circulation on social media platforms could lead people to believe it was real, potentially allowing it to be exploited by foreign governments.
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Mr. Sibal further submitted that the video was earlier taken down following complaints to the Center and Delhi DCP, but it resurfaced through different URLs and became accessible again on platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram.
He therefore asked the court to order the deletion of the video and restrain the organization from exploiting his client’s personal attributes.
Meta’s lawyers submitted that the video on that platform was removed early this morning and the link is no longer accessible.
