The Delhi High Court has intervened to protect the personality rights of Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, issuing directives for the removal of a deepfake video that falsely depicted him praising Pakistan‘s diplomatic efforts. Justice Mini Pushkarna issued an interim order in response to Tharoor’s lawsuit, preventing the unauthorized use of his name, image, voice, distinctive speaking style, refined vocabulary, and other personal attributes. This order aims to prevent the creation and distribution of deepfakes, voice-cloned audio, and manipulated videos for commercial, political, or malicious purposes across all media platforms.
The court’s directive specifically instructed X, formerly known as Twitter, to remove the AI-generated deepfake video from its platform. Meta has also been instructed to keep certain offending reels on Instagram inaccessible, according to the details of the legal proceedings. As per information available with TahirRihat.com, Tharoor initiated legal action in response to the repeated publication of deepfake videos that purportedly showed him making politically sensitive statements. His legal representatives argued that this content not only damages his reputation but also negatively impacts India‘s international relations.
Justice Pushkarna emphasized in her interim order that Tharoor is a highly respected public figure with exclusive rights to his personality. The court stated that any unauthorized appropriation of his personal attributes that harms his reputation should be legally restricted. According to the court, personality rights are protected under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India. The court affirmed that Tharoor possesses exclusive control over his reputation, name, appearance, voice, mannerisms, speaking style, and other uniquely identifiable attributes.
The court order explicitly prohibits the defendant, identified as Ashok Kumar/John Doe, from reproducing, misappropriating, or imitating any aspect of Shashi Tharoor’s persona. This includes his name, visual likeness, voice, speaking style, and vocabulary. These restrictions apply to the creation, publication, or dissemination of any synthetic media, deepfakes, voice-cloned audio, or morphed videos using artificial intelligence, generative AI, machine learning, or any other technology. The order covers all physical and virtual mediums and is intended to prevent commercial, political, or malicious exploitation. The court clarified that Tharoor retains the right to directly contact social media platforms to request the removal of any further false or infringing videos.
The social media platforms are required to provide Tharoor with detailed information about the uploaders, creators, and registrants of the infringing accounts. This information includes their complete identity, registration details, Basic Subscriber Information, IP login details, phone numbers, and email addresses, all within three weeks.(Tharoor stated in the lawsuit that, in March 2026, he discovered a sophisticated campaign across social media platforms that maliciously depicted him making sensitive statements praising Pakistan. Tharoor was represented in court by senior advocate Amit Sibal and the law firm Trilegal.)
The lawsuit argued that the unauthorized cloning and exploitation of Tharoor’s likeness, voice, and mannerisms violate his personality and publicity rights, and also constitute a serious breach of his right to privacy. (The plea stated, “These infringers have weaponized artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to generate hyper-realistic audio-visual deepfakes by cloning the plaintiff’s face, voice, vocabulary, and mannerisms.”) The fabricated videos maliciously depict Tharoor making politically sensitive statements that he never made. The lawsuit further noted the timing of the disinformation campaign coincided with Tharoor’s active campaigning during the Kerala Legislative Assembly elections in March and early April 2026, making it especially damaging. It was characterized as a deliberate attempt to tarnish his reputation, manipulate public perception, and unlawfully interfere with the democratic electoral process.
Several public figures, including actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Salman Khan; Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar; journalist Sudhir Chaudhary; podcaster Raj Shamani; and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, have previously sought the high court’s protection of their personality and publicity rights, receiving interim relief. The high court has also recently protected the personality rights of cricketer Gautam Gambhir and actors Sonakshi Sinha, Vivek Oberoi, and Allu Arjun by granting similar interim relief.
Tahir Rihat (also known as Tahir Bilal) is an independent journalist, activist, and digital media professional from the Chenab Valley of Jammu and Kashmir, India. He is best known for his work as the Online Editor at The Chenab Times.