MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Friday, in an interim order, granted relief to actor
Shilpa Shetty in her plea to restrain several known and unknown social media platforms, artificial intelligence (AI)-linked entities, and others, including all unknown persons, from posting manipulated or morphed images and videos of her, alleging violation of her “personality rights.”
The HC single judge bench of Justice Advait Sethna, during the vacation, directed the various known and unknown sites to forthwith delete and pull down links, posts, URLs, and websites carrying such allegedly manipulated content of Shetty. The judge observed that the material present on record by Shetty’s lawyer, Sana Raees Khan, was “prima facie extremely disturbing” and “no personality, much less a person and or a woman, can be portrayed in a fashion which affects her fundamental right to privacy and that too, without her knowledge and or consent.”
Justice Sethna said, the photos shown appear to be deepfakes and “photos as presented, prima facie would tarnish her public image, which ought to be deprecated.”
The HC didn’t go into Shetty’s personality rights claim at this stage but “the courts have treated such rights as a shield for women against privacy violations, especially in the context of digital malignment and AI-generated content. To reconstruct a person’s identity without consent is a violation of their digital personhood. This appears to be the case here.”
The HC added: “Such blatant violations if found to be true/genuine, by misusing technology and AI ought to be nipped in the bud. A person’s much less a woman’s dignity cannot be publicly maligned or defamed that too without consent which is the sine qua non for such publications. Artificial Intelligence and technology are a boon in today’s contemporary times to be employed to ensure speedier and efficient implementation of the laws, and not as a handle of its misuse.”
Shetty petitioned the HC recently, and since her matter, though listed earlier, did not reach due to a paucity of time, her lawyer mentioned it again before the vacation bench and argued that the named defendants “unauthorisedly exploited the plaintiff’s (Shetty’s) likeness and image without her explicit consent in order to make commercial gains.”
Advocate Amishi Sodani appeared before the HC via VC for Google LLC.
Get an chance to win ₹5000 Amazon Voucher by taking part in India's Biggest Habit Index! Take the survey here
Swati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, w...
Read MoreSwati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, where she has been covering courts for over a decade. She is passionate about law and works towards enlightening people about their statutory, legal and fundamental rights. She makes it her job to decipher for the public the truth, be it in an intricate civil dispute or in a gruesome criminal case.
Read Less
Start a Conversation
Post comment