Delhi HC to pass interim order protecting Shashi Tharoor’s personality rights over deepfake videos

The Delhi High Court on Friday (May 8, 2026) said it will pass an interim order to protect personality rights of Mr Shashi Tharoor, after the Congress leader moved court seeking removal of deepfake videos of him circulating online falsely attributing statements to him that he never made.

Justice Mini Pushkarna also issued notices to defendants in suit including social media platforms such as X and Meta, owner of Instagram.

Senior Advocate Amit Sibal, appearing for Mr. Tharoor, submitted before the court that there were three specific deepfake videos in circulation and that recourse had already been taken under the applicable rules by notifying the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), as well as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Delhi.

Mr. Sibal said that while certain versions of the videos had been taken down, they continued to resurface online under different URLs. “They keep coming back like the ten heads of Ravan,” he remarked.

He further argued that Mr. Tharoor, being a public figure and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, was being falsely shown making politically sensitive statements, “even in the context of India’s relation with foreign states”.

Mr. Sibal highlighted that these deepfake videos are could be misused by foreign States, as some of it have appeared on websites based in Pakistan.

The senior counsel also told the court that several media fact-checkers had already concluded that the videos were fabricated, yet members of the public continued to believe them to be authentic. “His (Mr Tharoor) own reputation and good will is being tarnished, by these deepfake video which are making statements which he has never made,” Mr. Sibal contended.

Counsel appearing for Meta informed the court that all the identified Instagram posts had been taken down earlier in the day. X, however, had not filed any reply in the matter at the time of hearing.

Mr. Tharoor is the sitting Member of Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.

Several public figures, like actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani had earlier approached the high court seeking protection of their personality and publicity rights. The high court granted them interim relief.