NEW DELHI: Micro-blogging platform X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday opposed before the Delhi High Court Patanjali founder Ramdev’s plea seeking protection of personality rights and deletion of tweets allegedly made against him.
X submitted that “political commentary, satire, fair comment and public speech cannot be ordered to be taken down in matters seeking protection of personality rights.”
The submission was made before Justice Jyoti Singh, who briefly heard the matter and posted it for further hearing. The court directed the parties to file a short note detailing the content being objected to.
Ramdev has sought to restrain various social media entities from using his title, image, likeness, voice, unique style of discourse, delivery, and other attributes without his authorisation for commercial gain. He alleged that the defendants were exploiting his personality rights across all formats, including content generated through artificial intelligence and deepfakes. The plea also sought deletion of various posts on X, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Other high-profile personalities, including actor Salman Khan, Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan, cricketer Sunil Gavaskar, and actor NTR Junior, have filed similar suits before the Delhi High Court. Coordinate benches have earlier passed orders protecting the personality rights of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and producer Karan Johar.