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 would pass an interim order to protect the personal rights of Mr. Shashi Tharoor after the Congress leader approached the court to remove deepfake videos of him circulating on the internet falsely attributing to him statements he never made.

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

Senior Advocate Amit Sibal, appearing for Mr. Tharoor, submitted before the court that there are three specific deepfake videos in circulation and this application has already been received under the applicable rules by notifying the Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and also the Deputy Commissioner of Police of Delhi.

Mr. Sibal said certain versions of the videos had been removed but continued to resurface under different URLs. “They keep coming back like Ravan’s corporal,” he remarked.

He also alleged that Mr. Tharoor, a public figure and Chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was mistakenly shown making politically sensitive statements “even in the context of India’s relations with foreign states.”

Mr. Sibal underlined that these deepfake videos could be misused by foreign states, as some of them appear on Pakistan-based websites.

The senior lawyer also told the court that some fact-checkers in the media had concluded that the videos were fabricated but the public continued to believe they were real. “(Mr Tharoor’s) own reputation and goodwill are being tarnished by these deepfake videos making statements that he never made,” Mr. Sibal alleged.

Meta’s lawyer told the court that all of the Instagram posts identified had been removed earlier in the day. However, X did not provide any answer on the issue during the hearing.

Mr. Tharoor is an MP from Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.

Prominent personalities such as 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 personalities and publicity rights. The high court granted them an interim injunction.