New Delhi, Sep 25 — The Delhi High Court on Friday directed Meta Platforms to remove, within 24 hours, "objectionable content" concerning a woman, who alleged that an AI-generated and morphed image of her alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi was circulated online after being displayed during a CJP protest at Jantar Mantar.
A single-judge Bench of Justice Girish Kathpalia also directed the Delhi Police to provide complete protection to the petitioner and issued notice to CJP activists Saurav Das, Abhijit Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka, and Ratna Singh on her plea seeking urgent removal of the allegedly objectionable content.
The Delhi High Court directed the police to file a status report detailing the action taken in the matter and posted the matter for further hearing on October 14.
"In order to ensure that she is provided complete police protection, it is directed that today she will disclose her exact residential address to the IO present in Court. And IO shall forthwith transmit the address to SHO of the area in which petitioner resides. IO shall also transmit a copy of this order to the said SHO, who is directed to ensure complete police protection to the petitioner in all possible and practical manner," Justice Kathpalia ordered.
During the hearing, the Delhi Police informed the High Court that an FIR had already been registered in connection with the alleged circulation of the content and submitted that action would be taken expeditiously.
"Delhi Police accepts notice and submits that since FIR was registered yesterday itself, the action shall be taken as expeditiously as possible," the order recorded.
The High Court further directed the registry to redact all the impugned web links from the petition and its annexures.
However, it directed the petitioner to hand over the pictures and videos concerned, along with the web links, to the investigating agency in electronic form.
It also orally observed that the petitioner would have the right to claim compensation from the organisers of the demonstration and made it clear that filing of the petition would not preclude her from claiming any other relief available to her in law.
According to the petition, the petitioner alleged that her photograph was unauthorisedly obtained and used with AI face-swapping tools to create a "highly vulgar and compromising image" showing her alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The petitioner further alleged that videos and images were uploaded on Instagram and other social media platforms, while the morphed images were subsequently uploaded and circulated on pornographic websites.
According to the plea, the alleged incident took place in July during a CJP protest, following which the petitioner approached the police on September 23 after facing severe online harassment and threats of sexual assault.
The Delhi Police registered an FIR at the Cyber Police Station, New Delhi, on September 24 under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Information Technology Act.
The plea claimed that despite registration of the FIR, immediate steps had not been taken to secure the takedown or blocking of the allegedly viral content. It further alleged that continued circulation of the images had subjected the petitioner to "continuous, life-threatening intimidation, rape threats, and severe mental trauma".
The petition sought directions to the authorities to trace, block and remove the alleged morphed and explicit images from social media platforms and pornographic websites, besides seeking protection of her life, liberty and bodily integrity.