Delhi High Court orders blocking of AI-generated porn of social media influencer

The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered social media platforms and porn websites to take down the deepfakes and AI-generated pornographic pictures and videos of a social media influencer. 

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav passed an interim order, noting that the content uploaded is “completely appalling, deplorable, defamatory, and is a patent breach of the fundamental rights of the plaintiff”.

“The plaintiff is at liberty to notify defendant Nos. 28 to 31 or any other intermediary platforms/website(s), of any subsequently discovered URLs containing the offending Suit images or identical content, as found on their respective social media platforms and/or websites, which shall be acted upon by the said defendants,” the Court ordered. 

The social media influencer approached the High Court stating that videos and photos uploaded online depicted her in an obscene and malicious manner. 

It was argued that the act of posting such content was not only a violation of her fundamental right to privacy, dignity and reputation but also constituted a serious civil tort. 

The Court, prima facie, agreed with the arguments and passed the injunction. 

Justice Kaurav further ordered Meta (Facebook) and X Corp (Twitter) to disclose the complete details of the social media handles who posted the defamatory content. 

Further, the Bench ordered masking of plaintiff’s details in the court proceedings. 

“Considering the confidentiality of the instant matter, the Registry is directed to delete the name and other details of the plaintiff from the memo of parties and take appropriate steps to amend the cause title in accordance with extant rules.”

Advocate Raghav Awasthi appeared for the plaintiff-influencer.

Advocates Mamta Rani Jha, Rohan Ahuja, Shruttima Ehersa, Diya and Aishwarya appeared for Google. 

Advocates Chetanya Puri, Anubhav Tyagi, Nisha and Puneet Singh represented the Union of India. 

[Read Order]