The Delhi High Court on Friday passed an interim order restraining YouTube channels and other social media platforms from using the name, image, likeness, and voice of senior journalist Sudhir Chaudhary without authorisation.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora granted interim relief to Chaudhary, who approached the court alleging the circulation of misleading and AI-generated videos on social media platforms, including statements falsely attributed to him.
“Injunction granted. We will give it for name Sudhir Chaudhary, image, likeness and voice,” the judge said.
Chaudhary’s petition claimed that several deepfake videos and manipulated content were being circulated on YouTube and other platforms, misleading the public and infringing his personality rights.
His counsel informed the court that, apart from the links mentioned in the original suit, Chaudhary would submit additional links of such content by October 20, along with an affidavit, and sought an extension of the injunction to cover these as well.
The court directed Chaudhary to serve a copy of the order to all YouTube channels arrayed as defendants in the case.
It ordered that the defendants must take down the infringing links within 48 hours, failing which Google LLC (Defendant No. 2) will be responsible for removing the content.
Further, the court allowed Chaudhary to notify Google LLC and Meta Platforms about any content identical to the impugned material, which must also be taken down within 48 hours of receiving such notice.
The suit names Meta Platforms, Google LLC, and several known and unknown entities as defendants. Chaudhary has sought protection of his personality rights against the unauthorised use of his name and likeness, particularly in the context of AI-generated deepfake videos.
The order comes amid a series of similar interim injunctions issued by the Delhi High Court recently to protect the personality rights of public figures, including ‘Art of Living’ founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Telugu actor Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and producer-director Karan Johar.
