Bombay High Court grants actress Shruti Haasan interim relief on plea against AI deepfakes

The Bombay High Court has passed an interim order in favor of actress Shruti Haasan on her plea seeking directions to restrain the publication of artificial intelligence (AI) generated and other content that violate her personality rights by misusing her image or likeness.

Haasan had approached the Court seeking the protection of her personality and publicity rights, which she contended were being violated through AI-generated deepfakes that use her image without permission, manipulated videos, unauthorised commercial endorsements, and unlicensed merchandise.

Justice Madhav Jamdar, in an interim order, recognised the severe harm caused by such digital manipulation of one's image and the rapid spread of deepfakes online.

"There is substance in the contention raised by the plaintiff (Haasan) that the continuing dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes, manipulated images, chatbots, and other infringing content has caused and continues to cause irreparable injury to the plaintiff's goodwill, reputation, and commercial interests. Such injury cannot be adequately compensated by monetary damages alone, as once deepfake content is disseminated across the internet, it is capable of unlimited replication and circulation, resulting in permanent dilution of the plaintiff's personality rights and public image," the Court observed.

Justice Jamdar highlighted the constitutional backing of personality and privacy rights, emphasising that unauthorised digital manipulations encroach upon fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution of India.

"The material on record clearly shows that (Haasan's) personality rights, publicity rights, and moral rights are violated by creation of said morphed, deepfake, and/or superimposed contents comprising the morphed plaintiff's images, photographs, and videos. (Haasan's) personality rights and publicity rights are protected by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution of India, that is, the right of freedom of speech and expression. The right to life and personal liberty, including the right to privacy, are protected by Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The right to life as contemplated under Article 21 of the Constitution of India includes the right to live with dignity. Thus, a very strong prima facie case is made out," the Bench held.

It proceeded to issue directions for the takedown of content flagged by Haasan in her plea.

Haasan had instituted a suit last month targeting multiple entities involved in creating, hosting, and distributing unauthorised content incorporating her persona.

In earlier hearings, the High Court had granted a final opportunity to several non-responsive defendants to mark their appearance or file a reply.

As multiple respondents failed to appear or submit a defense despite having several weeks to do so, the Court proceeded to grant ad-interim injunction against them.

Meanwhile, counsel representing some of the defendants who appeared for the hearings assured the Court that infringing content hosted on their platforms would be removed promptly upon the receipt of legible URLs from Haasan's legal team.