The Delhi High Court on Friday directed Meta Platforms to immediately remove objectionable social media content containing a woman's morphed picture alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ordered the Delhi Police to provide her complete protection after she said she was receiving threats to her life, reported PTI.
Justice Girish Kathpalia observed that the matter was an extraordinary one as it concerned not only the woman but also the Prime Minister of the country.
“If the Delhi Police is not sensitive about it, the court will ensure it becomes sensitive,” the judge observed.
According to the PTI report, the court also issued notice to Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das, Abhijit Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Ratna Singh on the woman's plea alleging that they circulated her morphed and explicit pictures alongside Modi.
The court listed the matter for further hearing on October 14 and directed the police to provide complete protection to the woman, who told the court that she had received threats to her life.
The plea alleged that during a recent CJP protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, the four leaders and their “active accomplices” unauthorisedly obtained the woman's personal photograph and used artificial intelligence (AI) face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a “highly vulgar, compromising image” alongside the Prime Minister.
The woman sought the removal of fabricated and deepfake images purportedly showing her morphed face in vulgar images alongside Modi.
Her lawyer told the court that an FIR had already been registered in connection with the incident. However, he argued that no concrete steps had been taken to apprehend those responsible or secure the immediate takedown or blocking of the viral deepfake links.
The plea said the alleged content had been circulated following the CJP protests at Jantar Mantar.
(With inputs from PTI)