The Delhi High Court on Saturday granted interim relief to Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on his plea seeking protection of his personality rights, and ordered the removal of AI-generated deepfakes, including fabricated videos that maliciously showed him praising Pakistan, across digital platforms.
Court's Ruling on Personality Rights
Justice Mini Pushkarna ruled that being a 'respected and recognised public figure', Tharoor holds enforceable personality and publicity rights over all identifiable aspects of his persona. The court barred anyone from reproducing, misappropriating, or imitating Tharoor's name, image, visual likeness, distinct voice, signature oratorical cadence, manner of speaking, and highly refined vocabulary.
Justice Pushkarna stated that the Thiruvananthapuram MP's 'reputation, goodwill, name, physical appearance, image, likeness, voice, mannerisms, styles, signature oratorical style, and other attributes are uniquely identifiable and associated with him'.
Prohibition on AI-Generated Content
The High Court declared that no one can create, publish, or disseminate any synthetic media, deepfakes, voice-cloned audio, or morphed video through the use of AI, generative AI, machine learning, or any other technology for any commercial, political, or malicious purpose across any physical or virtual medium.
The court directed XCorp to remove specific links containing the disputed content and instructed Meta to ensure that identified Instagram URLs, which had already been blocked, remain inaccessible. It also ordered both platforms to disclose the identities and subscriber details of those who allegedly uploaded or created the content within three weeks.
Tharoor's Legal Action
Tharoor had approached the court seeking a permanent injunction against the alleged misuse of his personality, voice, likeness, and public image through AI-generated deepfake videos that falsely depicted him making politically sensitive remarks. According to his civil suit, the manipulated videos caused significant damage to his public image. The court restrained the defendants, identified as 'Ashok Kumar/John Doe' and associated persons, from reproducing, imitating, or using any aspect of Tharoor's identity to create deepfakes, voice-cloned audio, or morphed videos through AI, generative AI, or machine learning.
This ruling marks a significant step in protecting public figures from the misuse of emerging technologies that can fabricate realistic yet false representations.
