Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has approached the Delhi High Court to halt a “sophisticated and malicious” disinformation campaign involving AI-generated deepfakes that purportedly show him praising Pakistan and making other sensitive political statements.
On Friday, Justice Mini Pushkarna issued summons to social media giants X (formerly Twitter) and Meta Platforms, as well as the Union government, in response to the lawsuit filed by the Thiruvananthapuram MP. The court indicated it would pass an interim order in Tharoor’s favor to protect his personality and publicity rights.
Tharoor, who serves as the current chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs and is a former Minister of State for External Affairs, argued that these fabricated videos are a direct assault on his patriotic credentials and professional standing.
Representing Tharoor, senior advocate Amit Sibal submitted that unknown entities are repeatedly misappropriating the MP’s face, voice, and mannerisms to create hyper-realistic audio-visual content.
“I am a former external affairs minister. It matters to India’s standing as well,” Sibal argued during the hearing. “It is liable to be misused by foreign states.”
The legal team emphasized that while news organizations like India Today have publicly flagged these videos as fakes, the content continues to circulate, leaving the public with the false impression that the statements are authentic.
The lawsuit traces the origin of the campaign to around March 2026, a critical period when Tharoor was actively campaigning for the Kerala Legislative Assembly elections.
The plea contends that the “unauthorized cloning and exploitation” of Tharoor’s likeness was a deliberate attempt to manipulate public perception and unlawfully interfere with the democratic process. According to the lawsuit, the infringers weaponized machine learning to clone Tharoor’s unique vocabulary and attributes, making the disinformation particularly damaging.
While some offending URLs were previously removed following police complaints and grievances filed under IT Rules, Sibal noted that the content frequently resurfaces through new links. Counsel for Meta informed the court on Friday that the offending content on Instagram had been made inaccessible as of that morning.
Tharoor is the latest in a growing list of high-profile figures seeking judicial intervention against the misuse of their likeness through AI. The Delhi High Court has recently granted similar interim relief to several public figures to protect their personality rights, including:
- Actors: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Allu Arjun, and Vivek Oberoi.
- Athletes: Cricketer Gautam Gambhir.
- Public Figures: Andhra Pradesh Deputy CM Pawan Kalyan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and various prominent journalists and podcasters.
The court’s upcoming interim order is expected to provide a framework for the immediate takedown of the deepfakes targeting Tharoor across major digital platforms.
