Delhi High Court protects personality rights of Sadhguru from AI misuse

The Delhi High Court has passed a "dynamic+" injunction order restraining rogue websites and social media accounts from misusing artificial intelligence (AI) to infringe on the personality rights of Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru aka Jagadish "Jaggi" Vasudev..Justice Saurabh Banerjee also ordered X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube to take down accounts found dedicated to such activity and to share the Basic Subscriber Information of such account users. The Court noted that a strong prima facie case had been made out for an ex parte, interim dynamic injunction order to protect Sadhguru's personality rights. A dynamic injunction is a broad restraining order that extends to future instances of right violations as well.“The rights of a plaintiff (Sadhguru), cannot be rendered otiose in this world of rapidly developing technology and for that, enforcement of intellectual property rights on any social platform, including but not limited to, the internet as well alongwith the real world, ought to be visible and effective,” the Court explained, while issuing the dynamic injunction order against any rogue platform that is found infringing on Sadhguru's personality rights..Sadhguru had moved the Court on concerns that his personality rights were being violated through the misuse of AI. As examples, he told the Court that there was a rogue website that carried fake news of his arrest and advocated for his freedom in a bid to get his followers to download an app or register on the platform; that another entity created a fake interview showing Sadhguru as supporting a dubious trading platform called 'Trendtastic Prism'; that there were social media accounts which sold a hair growth product and promoted a book on pregnancy tips; and that there were even AI-generated motivational talks that were wrongly attributed to Sadhguru.It was alleged that AI tools were being used to unauthorisedly morph and doctor Sadhguru's voice, speeches and interviews to create deepfakes with the intention to derive illicit commercial gain and spread false information.Sadhguru questioned such unauthorized and unlawful use of his name, image, likeness and other distinctive attributes, arguing that it violated his personality rights and his right to publicity, since they falsely suggested an association or an endorsement by him..The Court noted that Sadhguru was a trusted source for spiritual guidance worldwide with a unique personality and that any misuse or misrepresentation of his personality would harm his reputation and also the public’s trust. The Court concluded that there was a clear prima facie case to pass an interim injunction order against any online platform that violating Sadhguru's personality rights in this manner. "The rogue websites are using URL-redirection and identity masking methods and so a prima facie case of personality rights infringement has been made out ... In these circumstances, the present case appears, prima facie, to be a clear example of personality rights infringement by entities such as defendant nos. 1-41, who are using modern technology to hide their identities while unlawfully benefiting from the plaintiff’s personality rights,” the Court stated. It noted that these social media accounts were using modern technology to modify the voice, image and likeness of Sadhguru to garner more views and subscribers in order to piggyback on his name and reputation.“If not stopped, the chances that (wrong) message will spread like wild fire with hardly any water left to douse it. In any event, it is extremely implausible to ask the plaintiffs, especially the plaintiff no.1, to run/ chase after each one of the ‘unknown’ defendants who happen to be ‘rouge websites’ and/ or to respond to the world at large qua the ‘originality’ of the plaintiffs,” the Court stated. The Court, therefore, issued a restraining order to prevent the creation and dissemination of such content. It also directed the Department of Telecommunications (‘DoT’) and the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (‘MEITY’) to issue a notification ensuring that internet service providers and social media platforms adhere to the Court’s directions.The Court further issued summons to the rogue websites, and sought their response by October 14. .Advocates Saikrishna Rajagopal, Deepika Pokharia, Angad S Makkar, Disha Sharma and Pushpet Ghosh, of Saikrishna & Associates, represented Sadhguru..Google was represented by Advocate Mamta Jha, Co-Managing Partner from Inttl Advocare with Advocates Shruttima Ehersa, Rahul Choudhary and Himani SachdevaAdvocates Sandeep Kumar Mahapatra and Tribhuvan appeared for the Department of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.[Read Order]