Shashi Tharoor on Friday filed a petition in the Delhi High Court against the circulation of an AI-generated deepfake video that allegedly praises Pakistan and makes politically sensitive statements that he has never made.
Justice Mini Pushkarna, while hearing the plea, issued summons to social media platform X, Metaplatform and the Centre. The court also indicated that it may issue an interim order in favor of the members of Congress.
Senior advocate Amit Sibal, who appeared for Tharoor, argued that unknown parties have repeatedly released fake videos using the leader’s face, voice and personality traits through artificial intelligence technology. He said its contents had seriously damaged Tharoor’s reputation and public image.
According to the petition, the fabricated video falsely depicted the former federal minister and chairman of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs as making statements in support of Pakistan. Sibal claimed that these videos harm India’s international standing and can also be misused by foreign actors.
The court was informed that several URLs containing deepfake content have already been removed following complaints lodged with police authorities under IT rules. However, fake videos continued to resurface across social media platforms.
A lawyer representing Mehta informed the court that the objectionable content on Instagram had already been blocked earlier in the day.
In his petition, Tharoor alleged that the malicious campaign started around March 2026 during the Kerala Assembly election campaign. The petition said the surreal video was created by using AI and machine learning tools to replicate his face, voice, vocabulary and mannerisms.
The complaint further said that the disinformation campaign was deliberately timed to tarnish his patriotic image, manipulate public opinion and disrupt the democratic electoral process during the Kerala elections.
The petition also alleged that the unauthorized use of Tharoor’s likeness violates his moral rights, publicity rights and privacy rights.
Several celebrities, including Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Salman Khan, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sudhir Chaudhary, Raj Sharman and Pawan Kalyan, have moved the Delhi High Court seeking protection against misuse of moral and publicity rights by AI-generated content.
Recently, the High Court also granted interim relief to Gautam Gambhir and actors Sonakshi Sinha, Vivek Oberoi and Allu Arjun in a similar case regarding protection of personality rights.
