A number of prominent celebrities have previously approached the Delhi High Court for protection against unauthorized use of their likeness through AI-generated content and other forms of digital manipulation.
NEW DELHI: Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday moved the Delhi High Court seeking action against the circulation of AI-generated deepfake videos that allegedly praise Pakistan or make politically sensitive statements.
In response to the suit, Justice Mini Pushkarna along with the Center issued summons to social media platform X and Metaplatform. The court also indicated that it intends to pass an interim order in favor of Mr. Tharoor.
Senior advocate Amit Sibal, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and appearing on behalf of the Thiruvananthapuram MP, alleged that unidentified persons have been repeatedly releasing fabricated videos by misusing Tharoor’s face, voice and personal attributes. He asked the court to order the content to be removed.
Sibal said in court that the video caused serious damage to Tharoor’s reputation as a patriot and as chairman of Parliament’s external affairs committee.
“Although India Today and PTI have publicly stated that these are fake videos, many still believe they are real,” Sibal submitted.
He further argued that as a former foreign minister, the issue has far-reaching implications for India’s international standing and could be exploited by foreign countries. According to Sibal, the material continued to reappear online even though some URLs had already been removed following a complaint under IT rules and a police complaint.
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A lawyer representing Mehta informed the court that the disputed Instagram content had become inaccessible earlier in the day.
In his argument, Tharoor said he became aware in March 2026 of what he described as a “sophisticated malicious campaign” carried out on social media platforms by unidentified attackers. The allegedly fabricated video showed him making statements in support of Pakistan, which he never made.
The lawsuit claimed that the unauthorized use of his likeness, voice, and mannerisms not only violates his personality rights and portrait rights, but also constitutes a serious violation of his privacy.
“These infringers, armed with artificial intelligence and machine learning, created hyper-realistic audiovisual deepfakes by replicating Plaintiff’s face, voice, vocabulary, and mannerisms,” the petition states.
The filing further alleged that while Mr. Tharoor was actively campaigning during the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections, the campaign intensified and the misinformation became particularly harmful.
“This was a deliberate attempt to undermine his patriotic credentials, manipulate public perception, and illegally interfere with the democratic electoral process,” the petition added.
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In the past, many prominent celebrities have approached the Delhi High Court seeking protection against unauthorized use of their likeness through AI-generated content and other forms of digital manipulation. Those granted interim relief include actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan, spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shermani and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan.
Recently, the court also extended interim protection to cricketer Gautam Gambhir and actors Sonakshi Sinha, Vivek Oberoi and Allu Arjun.
Release date: May 8, 2026, 1:39 PM IST
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