The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the takedown of deepfakes of social media personality Ankur Warikoo giving financial advice and asking to join a WhatsApp link for free financial tips..Justice Amit Bansal directed the takedown of the links placed on record in the petition."I will direct take down of the links you have placed on record. It can’t be a blanket order for all future links," he stated.The Court also restrained websites from posting the deepfakes. It said that compliance of the order has to be completed in 5 days. .Appearing for Warikoo, Senior Advocate Swathi Sukumar stated that there are deepfakes of Warikoo circulating on social media which show him advertising stocks of some companies. "Deepfakes is a big problem now. This is active and complete impersonation. He gives some financial advise but he never advertises a particular stock," she submitted before the Court. She told the Court that the deepfake videos ask people to join a WhatsApp group where they can directly connect with Warikoo to get free tips on stocks. It was submitted that the deepfakes not only infringe upon Warikoo's personality, publicity rights and trademarks of his company, but also cause substantial financial loss to innocent investors as a direct result of such fraud. .The next date of hearing is on October 8..Advocates Rishabh Sharma, Mayank Bhargava, Abhishek Shivpuri and Rajdeep Saraf also appeared for Warikoo.
