Delhi High Court Protects Personality Rights Of Journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, Orders Take Down Of AI & Deepfake Videos In 48 Hours

The Delhi High Court on Friday (October 10) passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of Journalist and Editor-in-chief of DD News Sudhir Chaudhary, who had sought relief regarding circulation of allegedly misleading and AI generated videos against him on social media.

Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora in her order noted that in addition to the links mentioned in suit, Chaudhary also wants to file additional links pertaining to deepfake videos on YouTube.

The court thereafter said, "Injunction granted, we will it give it for name Sudhir Chaudhary, image, likeness and voice". 

The court directed that Chaudhary will serve copy of the order on defendant entities and Google LLC and the defendant entities will take down infringing links within "48 hours".

"In case of failure, defendant 2 (Google LLC) will take down," the court added. 

The court further called for Basic Subscriber Information details of the defendants within three weeks.

It also issued summons in the main suit directing that Chaudhary will file amended memo of parties after receiving BSI details of those defendants whose identities are unknown. It did not issue summons to Meta and Google since they are not contesting parties.

The Court said that Chaudhary can inform social media platforms Google LLC and Meta Platforms about the content identical to the content challenged in the lawsuit which shall be taken down within 48 hours. 

Chaudhary has filed the suit against social media platforms, including Meta platforms, various known and unknown entities. Appearing for him, senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao argued that there were YouTube videos which are AI generated. He said that these were are all unauthorized.

"None of these are mine and some attribute statements which I never made", he said.

Rao submitted that the additional links along with Chaudhary's affidavit will be filed by October 20. He prayed that injunction pressed for today also be extended to these additional links. He stated that links have been identified on social media handles of defendants 3-15 who are already parties to the suit. 

The journalist has sought protection of his personality rights against circulation of allegedly misleading and AI generated videos against him on social media.

Recently, coordinate benches have passed orders protecting the personality rights of “The Art of Living” foundation founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, Bollywood actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and film producer Karan Johar.

The suit has been filed through Advocate Rudrali Patil.

Counsel for Plaintiff: Mr. Rajshekhar Rao, Sr. Adv. with Ms. Rudrali Patil, Mr. Kushagra Singh, Mr. Kartik Sundar, Ms. Arshiya Ghose, Mr. Anmol Agarwal, Mr. Varuni, Mr. Shaantanu Devansh and Mr. Nitish Dubey, Advs

Counsel for Defendants: Mr. Varun Pathak, Mr Vishesh Sharma and Ms. Anannya Gogoi, Advs. for D-1/Meta Platforms Inc; Ms. Mamta Jha, Mr. Rohan Ahuja, Ms. Shruttima Ehersa and Ms. Diya Viswanath, Advs. for D-2/Google LLC

Case Title: Sudhir Chaudhary v. Meta Platforms & Ors