The Delhi High Court on Friday, May 8, said it would pass an interim order protecting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s personality rights and direct the removal of deepfake videos falsely depicting him as praising Pakistan. A single-judge Bench of Justice Mini Pushkarna issued summons on Tharoor’s suit to the Union government and social media intermediaries, including Meta and X, and directed them to file replies within four weeks.
The suit was filed by Tharoor through advocate Nikhil Narendran, partner at law firm Trilegal.
Senior advocate Amit Sibal, appearing for Tharoor, submitted before the court that several deepfake videos falsely attributed politically sensitive statements to the Congress leader and posed a serious threat to both his reputation and India’s international standing. Sibal told the court that despite repeated complaints under the Information Technology Rules, the allegedly infringing content continued to reappear through different URLs.
“These are three deepfake videos in different links. Identical, same video but appearing in different URLs,” Sibal submitted before the court.
He further argued that fact-checking organisations had already established the videos as fake, but many viewers continued to believe them to be genuine.
Referring to Tharoor’s concerns, Sibal submitted that the misuse of the Congress MP’s likeness and persona could have wider diplomatic implications. “What I say matters, and it matters to India’s standing as well. They have misappropriated my personality and created these videos praising another country to my detriment,” Sibal told the court on behalf of Tharoor.
The senior counsel further claimed that the videos could potentially be misused by foreign governments and were part of a coordinated misinformation campaign aimed at tarnishing Tharoor’s patriotic image and manipulating public perception.
Appearing for one of the intermediaries, Meta informed the court that some of the URLs identified by the plaintiff were already unavailable on its platforms. However, Tharoor’s counsel argued that similar content continued resurfacing through newly generated links.
Tharoor has sought protection of his personality and publicity rights against the alleged unauthorised use of his name, likeness, image and identity across digital platforms through AI-generated and morphed content.
The Congress MP had moved the High Court earlier this week seeking protection of his personality rights and had also arrayed several unidentified persons as defendants through a John Doe plea.
The matter adds to a growing list of personality rights cases before the Delhi High Court involving public figures and celebrities. Courts in recent months have granted similar protection to several personalities, including Gautam Gambhir, Sunil Gavaskar, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Allu Arjun, Nagarjuna, Kajol, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jubin Nautiyal, Karan Johar and Raj Shamani against unauthorised use of their identities and AI-generated content.
The court had also earlier protected journalist Sudhir Chaudhary against circulation of allegedly misleading AI-generated videos on social media.