Mumbai, March 16: The Bombay High Court has directed several e-commerce platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) content websites to remove deepfakes and other online material that allegedly infringe the personality rights of Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty Kundra.
Court restrains unauthorised use of personality rights
Justice Sharmila Deshmukh restrained around 28 entities from unauthorised use and commercial exploitation of the actor’s personality attributes, including her name, image, likeness and photographs.
The court observed that certain e-commerce platforms were misusing Shetty’s persona to market products by creating a false association with the actor.
“Upon prima facie consideration of the material placed on record, it is evident that by unauthorised use of Shetty’s persona, name, image, likeness, photographs and other personality attributes, the defendants are passing off their goods as being associated with Shetty,” the court said.
Concerns over AI-generated deepfakes
Justice Deshmukh also expressed concern over the misuse of AI tools to create deepfakes and other manipulated content featuring the actor without her consent.
The court noted that some websites generating AI content were allowing their platforms to be used for producing such material, thereby enabling violations of her personality rights.
Calling this the “most disturbing” aspect of the case, the judge said that the circulation of deepfake and AI-generated pornographic or obscene content could seriously harm a person’s reputation and dignity.
“Apart from the general commercialisation of the personality attributes of Shetty which requires immediate restraint, the most disturbing aspect is the deepfakes and AI-generated pornographic and obscene content generated and uploaded on publicly accessible platforms,” the court observed.
Violation of privacy and dignity
It added that such material tarnishes the image of the individual and violates the right to privacy and dignity guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The court reiterated that even public figures are entitled to protect their personality rights and cannot be commercially exploited without consent.
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Directions to digital platforms
It also directed intermediaries and digital platforms to continue taking down URLs identified by Shetty within eight days of receiving notice, while allowing them to approach the court if they have objections to the removal.
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