The Delhi High Court on Monday asked Meta Platforms and Google LLC to clarify whether they were willing to remove URLs containing morphed videos and profane language targeting veteran playback singer Kumar Sanu.
Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora issued the direction while hearing a plea filed by Sanu seeking protection of his personality and publicity rights, including his name, voice, vocal style, technique, and likeness.
“Counsel appearing for defendants 7 (Meta Platforms) and 20 (Google LLC) are directed to also take instructions that in view of the submissions made by the plaintiff (Sanu) that the impugned URLs bear morphed videos and contain profane language, that if they will take down the said videos… and why the same should not be taken down by the grievance officer in accordance with the IT Rules,” the court said.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 15, after the court sought certain clarifications from Sanu’s counsel. A list of offending URLs was placed on record, with time sought to review them.
Counsel for Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told the court they would review the URLs and revert regarding which ones could be removed.
He also pointed out the difficulty in assessing profanity under the Information Technology Rules.
“The difficulty is, if there is profanity. Under IT Rules the word defamation was specifically removed. Now as an intermediary I cannot judge what is profane what is not. That part has to be adjudicated by court,” he said.
In his lawsuit, filed through advocates Shikha Sachdeva and Sana Raees Khan, Sanu has sought protection against unauthorised or unlicensed use of his personality and publicity attributes. These include his name, voice, vocal arrangements, mannerisms, photographs, likeness, signature, and singing style.
He has also alleged violation of his moral rights under the Copyright Act, citing that various defendants are unlawfully extracting and exploiting his persona.
The plea highlights that Sanu is aggrieved by multiple GIFs, audio and video recordings, and AI-generated content cloning his voice and image, which not only bring him disrepute but also lead to unauthorised commercial exploitation.
“Such merchandise and audios/videos of the plaintiff generate revenue for the defendants, as they are uploaded and streamed on social networking websites, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, which generate revenue based on the number of clicks or views to a particular image/video,” the suit states.
“Such acts also amount to an attempt at false endorsements and passing off and hence, must be restrained by an order of injunction by this court.”
