On Thursday, the Delhi High Court took up Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s plea alleging the circulation of AI-generated deepfake videos falsely depicting him making politically sensitive remarks, including statements purportedly praising Pakistan’s foreign policy. Justice Mini Pushkarna issued notice in the matter and indicated that orders would be passed on Tharoor’s request seeking the takedown of the manipulated content and disclosure of details linked to the accounts circulating the videos. The case has drawn attention to the growing legal battle around AI-generated misinformation and misuse of public personalities through synthetic media.
The controversy erupted after allegedly fabricated videos portraying Tharoor making statements he never uttered began circulating online across multiple platforms. Appearing for the Congress MP, Senior Advocate Amit Sibal argued before the Court that the manipulated videos were so convincingly generated that they had misled members of the public, political figures, and even foreign journalists. He clarified that the plea was not based on copyright or patent infringement but on violation of personality rights and misuse of identity through artificial intelligence. The Court was also informed that although certain links had already been taken down, identical content continued resurfacing through fresh URLs across social media platforms.
Senior Advocate Amit Sibal described the recurring uploads as “the ten heads of Ravana,” pointing out the difficulty in containing AI-generated misinformation once it spreads online. The Court was informed that some Instagram URLs identified in the suit had already been blocked by Meta, while the plaintiff also sought disclosure of account and IP-related details connected to the identified content. Justice Mini Pushkarna directed the plaint to be registered as a suit and issued notice to the concerned parties, while reserving orders on prayers seeking the removal of existing and similar deepfake content as well as disclosure of identifying details linked to the URLs.
The matter will next be taken up before the Joint Registrar on July 13, 2026 and before the Court on October 13, 2026.
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