The Delhi High Court, on Friday, directed Meta Platforms to immediately remove objectionable content involving a woman's morphed picture alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi from social media platforms managed by the company.
The court also issued notices to Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das, Abhijit Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Ratna Singh after the woman alleged that they circulated morphed and explicit pictures of her alongside the prime minister.
Justice Girish Kathpalia described the case as an "extraordinary" situation, observing that the matter concerned not only the woman but also the prime minister of the country.
"This is extraordinary position in which the matter is not of one lady, it is a matter about the prime minister of the country. If they are not sensitive, I will make sure that they are sensitive," the court observed while referring to the Delhi Police.
The court directed Meta to immediately take down the objectionable content in question from its social media platforms.
The woman approached the High Court alleging that CJP leaders had morphed and circulated deepfake vulgar pictures depicting her alongside Prime Minister Modi. Her plea sought the removal of fabricated and deepfake images that purportedly showed her morphed face in vulgar pictures alongside the prime minister.
According to the petition, the woman's personal photograph was allegedly taken and used through artificial intelligence-based face-swapping tools during recent protests organised by the CJP at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
"During recent protests held by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, respondents No. 2 to 5 (CJP leaders) along with their active accomplices unauthorisedly harvested the personal photograph of the petitioner and utilised Artificial Intelligence (AI) face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a highly vulgar, compromising image alongside the Prime Minister of India," the plea alleged.
Her lawyer informed the court that an FIR had already been registered in the matter. He, however, argued that no concrete steps had been taken to apprehend those responsible or ensure the immediate removal or blocking of the viral deepfake links.
The High Court also directed the Delhi Police to provide complete protection to the woman after she submitted that she was receiving threats to her life.
Justice Kathpalia questioned the sensitivity of the police response to the matter and said the court would ensure action if the authorities were not sensitive to the situation.
The matter has been listed for further hearing on October 14.
