The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the removal of online content involving actor Janhvi Kapoor that was found to be prima facie pornographic and obscene, while declining to order a blanket takedown of fan pages.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani passed the interim order while hearing Kapoor’s suit seeking protection of her personality rights. The court, however, said the reliefs sought in her petition were too broad and asked her lawyers to submit a tabulated list of specific webpages carrying the objectionable material, reported Bar and Bench.
Court seeks specific links for takedown
Kapoor had approached the court seeking action against more than 5,000 webpages and social media posts. Her plea covered alleged AI-generated pornographic content, impersonation accounts, fake booking agencies and chatbots that allegedly used her identity and personality for commercial purposes without permission.
The court said it was willing to consider relief where content was “ex facie pornographic, obscene, prurient, lascivious” and appeared to directly monetise Kapoor’s personality rights through the sale of merchandise or services.
“I am inclined to give you relief in these categories,” the court said.
However, it refused to extend the order to fan pages, pointing to concerns over free speech and the wide scope of such a restriction.
“We are not the conscience keepers of the nation. Solution may be worse than the problem. It was at the very root of free speech. You may not be misusing restraint order but there may be others who will...Fan pages may be lampooning, adulatory of your work, critical of your work. You don't want fans? It is the digital world. No comments, no URLs...You will find yourself living in a cave,” it observed.
Court questions scope of personality rights
The court also questioned whether selling works featuring a celebrity’s likeness automatically amounts to commercial exploitation of personality rights.
“I have a photo and I have a right to sell it, how is it monetising you? Somebody writes a book so he cant sell it? Right to sell a copyrighted work is the copyright owners right. I am a potter, I make a mug, I put your likeness on it, I paint you or photograph you and sell it. Who owns the copyright then? Right of poster will be with the person who took the photograph. Is right to sell not part of it?” the court questioned.
Meta opposed the plea, saying reviewing thousands of links was not practically possible. The court also cautioned the platform against overstepping its role as an intermediary.
The next hearing is scheduled for August 17.