The Delhi High Court has granted interim relief to Shashi Tharoor in a suit seeking protection against AI-generated deepfake videos allegedly depicting him making false statements praising Pakistan’s diplomatic strategies.
Justice Mini Pushkarna observed that Mr Tharoor, being a recognised public figure, enjoys enforceable personality and publicity rights over facets of his identity, including his voice, likeness, vocabulary and speaking style. The Court observed:
“The plaintiff has exclusive control over the utilization of his personality. No one can utilize and/or misappropriate and/or imitate any facet of the plaintiff’s personality, and/or exploit the same deceptively, or in any manner whatsoever, without the express consent/authorization of the plaintiff.”
The suit alleged that unknown persons had used artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to create“hyper-realistic” deepfake videos cloning Mr Tharoor’s face, voice and oratorical style to falsely portray him making politically sensitive statements including that “Pakistan is faring much better diplomatically than India” and praising Pakistan’s diplomatic conduct as “absolute brilliance.”
According to the plaint, the fabricated content spread rapidly across social media platforms including X and Instagram and caused serious reputational harm during the Kerala Assembly election campaign period. The Court noted the plaintiff’s contention that the videos had misled members of the public, political circles and even foreign journalists, resulting in an “international embarrassment.”
Recording the statement made on behalf of Meta that certain identified Instagram URLs had already been made inaccessible, the Court directed continued blocking of the links and ordered X to take down the identified URL on its platform.
The Court further restrained the defendants from reproducing or imitating any aspect of Mr Tharoor’s persona through AI-generated synthetic media, including deepfakes and voice-cloned content.
The Court also ordered X and Meta to disclose identity details, subscriber information, IP login details, phone numbers and email addresses linked to the infringing accounts and URLs within three weeks. The Court additionally granted liberty to Mr Tharoor to approach the platforms directly for takedown of any future infringing content discovered during the pendency of the suit.
Appearances
Plaintiff- Mr. Amit Sibal, Senior Advocate with Ms. Tine Abraham, Mr. Pundrikaksh Mitruka, Mr. Vivek Krishnani, Ms. Ramayni Sood, Mr. Ankit Handa, Mr. Darpan Sachdeva, Mr. Nikhil Narenoran, Mr. Kuruvila Jacob, Advocates.
Respondents- Ms. Amee Rana with Ms. Nitya Nath and Ms. Komal Pathak, Advocates for defendant no. 3. (M): 9007138794 Ms. Rukhmini Bobde, CGSC with Mr. Manish Rawat, GP, Mr. Vinayak Aren, Ms. Aishwarya Nigam, Ms. Shrishti Singh and Mr. Abhishek Mohanpuria, Advocates for defendant nos. 4 and 5.
