NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has protected the moral rights of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and directed social media platform ‘X’ to remove an AI-generated deepfake video in which he allegedly praises Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Justice Mini Pushkarna, in an interim order passed in Tharoor’s case, also restrained the misuse of the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s name, image, unique voice and other aspects of his personality to create and publish any fake videos in any media for commercial, political or malicious purposes.
The court also required Mehta to continue to prevent access to certain offending Reels on Instagram that it had made inaccessible.
Tharoor previously filed a lawsuit in court against the repeated publication of deepfake videos of him allegedly making “politically sensitive” statements. His lawyers argued that these contents not only damaged his reputation but also affected India’s international standing.
Justice Pushkarna said that Mr. Tharoor was a “respected public figure” who had “exclusive control” over the use of his persona and that the exploitation of any attributes of his persona without his express permission and the consequent damage to his reputation could be restrained.
The court made it clear that if further “fake or infringing videos” are posted, Tharoor is free to ask social media platforms to take them down.
