New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered the immediate takedown of a morphed image of a woman alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi, directing the Delhi Police to file a report within a week on the action taken in a complaint against the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders for allegedly using this AI-generated image during a protest at Jantar Mantar.
To be sure, on the petitioner’s complaint, the FIR at the cyber police station in New Delhi district was registered against unknown persons under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Information Technology Act. In her petition, the woman,, through her lawyer Umesh Sharma, sought directions to the police to provide her protection and conduct an expeditious probe into the FIR, to unearth the alleged complete digital trail and secure the electronic device. It also directed social media platform Meta to take down the image within 24 hours, and ordered the police to protect the woman who petitioned the court against misuse of her image. The court passed the order in a petition filed by the 25-year-old content creator, a resident of Budh Vihar Phase 2, naming CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke and spokespersons Ratna Singh and Saurav Das, among others, for allegedly using her photos both online and at the protest site.
“Keeping in mind the nature of the issue involved, the status report shall be filed in one week, detailing the exact action taken,” the court ordered. It said that even after the registration of the FIR, neither have the prime accused been arrested nor have notices been issued to Meta to take down the deepfakes. This came after Delhi Police counsel told the court the FIR was registered on Thursday and assured it would take appropriate action expeditiously.
