Delhi High Court protects MP Shashi Tharoor’s personality rights; orders removal of deepfake video

PTI, May 10, 2026, New Delhi :  The Delhi High Court has protected the personality rights of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and directed social media platform X to take down an AI-generated deepfake video purportedly showing him praising Pakistan’s diplomacy.

Justice Mini Pushkarna, in an interim order passed on Tharoor’s lawsuit, also restrained the misappropriation of the Thiruvananthapuram MP’s name, image, distinct voice, “signature oratorical cadence and manner of speaking”, “highly refined vocabulary” and other facets of his persona to create and publish deepfakes, voice-cloned audio, morphed videos, or similar content for any commercial, political, or malicious purpose across any physical or virtual medium.

The court also directed Meta to ensure that certain offending reels on Instagram, which had been made inaccessible, continue to remain blocked.

Tharoor had approached the court against the repeated circulation of deepfake videos allegedly showing him making “politically sensitive” statements. His counsel argued that such content not only damaged his reputation but also affected India’s international standing.

Justice Pushkarna, in the interim order, observed that Tharoor is a “respected and recognised public figure” who has “exclusive control” over the use of his personality, and that unauthorised use of such attributes without consent is liable to be restrained.

“It is no more res integra that personality rights/publicity rights are protectable under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India, 1950. The plaintiff’s reputation, goodwill, name, physical appearance/image/likeness, voice, mannerisms, style, signature oratorical style, and other attributes are uniquely identifiable and associated with the plaintiff. The same form the plaintiff’s ‘personality’, over which the plaintiff enjoys sole and exclusive control,” the court stated.

The court further restrained the defendants from reproducing, misappropriating or imitating any aspect of the plaintiff’s persona, including his name, visual likeness, voice, oratorical cadence, and vocabulary, for creating or disseminating synthetic media, deepfakes, voice-cloned audio or morphed videos using AI or any other technology for commercial, political or malicious purposes.

It also directed the platform concerned to block access to the infringing content and provide details of the uploaders, including identity, IP logs, phone numbers and email addresses within three weeks.

The court clarified that in case of further circulation of infringing content, Tharoor would be at liberty to approach social media platforms for takedown.

In his plea, Tharoor stated that a “sophisticated, malicious campaign orchestrated by unknown infringers” had surfaced on social media platforms around March 2026, falsely depicting him making politically sensitive remarks praising Pakistan.

The plea, represented by senior advocate Amit Sibal and law firm Trilegal, said the unauthorised cloning of his likeness, voice and mannerisms violated his personality and publicity rights and his right to privacy.

“These infringers have weaponised artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to generate hyper-realistic audio-visual deepfakes by cloning the plaintiff’s face, voice, vocabulary, and mannerisms,” the petition stated.

It further added that the campaign was especially damaging as it emerged during his election campaign for the Kerala Legislative Assembly elections 2026, allegedly aimed at tarnishing his image and influencing the democratic process.

The High Court has in recent times granted similar interim protection of personality rights to several public figures, including cricketer Gautam Gambhir and actors Sonakshi Sinha, Vivek Oberoi and Allu Arjun. Other celebrities such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Salman Khan, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, podcaster Raj Shamani and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan have also approached the court seeking similar relief.