NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday raised concerns about a “mischievous feature” on Instagram reportedly being used as a tool to violate the copyrights of original content creators. The judge noted that the feature allows Instagram users to make changes to reels posted by others, and re-upload a modified version.
Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani stated that the Instagram feature allowed manipulation and enabled copyright infringement.
"Tell me, you (Meta) have a feature on Instagram that you can pick up a video, paste it and make it your own video. For example, someone is cooking a recipe, you can take the whole video and add yourself cooking as per the recipe and run it on your own handle.
“You (Meta) are allowing manipulation. It is a tool for copyright violation. Does your platform permit this? It is proof of copyright violation. It is a mischievous feature you have got there. These are powerful tools you are creating; then you give these to a ghost. You don't know who is going to use these tools. In our country today, if one has to own a gun they will be put to whole (application and approval process)…This is worse than a gun," the judge told the counsel representing Meta, the parent company of Instagram.
The counsel said the company will look into the concerns raised by the court.
The court made the observations while hearing a suit filed by educator and founder of Drishti IAS coaching centre, Vikas Divyakirti, who has sought the protection of his personality rights.
Divyakirti had moved court alleging that his “copyrights and moral rights have been violated through his impersonation on fake social media profiles, deepfakes, and fake endorsements.”
The counsel representing Divyakirti highlighted instances of manipulation and copyright infringement of his lectures.
The counsel alleged that the copyright infringers selectively use parts of Divyakirti's lectures to allege that he is Hindu-phobic and anti-Brahmin. She also flagged instances where Divyakirti's image was used in deepfake videos, including for a betting advertisement.
