Janhvi Kapoor seeks ban over deepfakes and obscene content; Delhi High Court questions blanket action against fan pages
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
Court indicates protection against pornographic material and commercial misuse while questioning the strict action to be taken pages which promote the star.
Adding to this, However, the court questioned whether such protection could extend indiscriminately to all fan pages and social media accounts associated with the star. Justice Bhambhani stressed the importance of finding a balance between safeguarding a star’s personality rights and protecting legitimate criticism, satire and freedom of expression.
Meanwhile, Kapoor’s lawyer, Advocate Asav Rajan, told the court that the star was particularly aggrieved by pornographic content, fake profiles impersonating her and AI-generated images and deepfakes. He also alleged that accounts on Meta-owned platforms and X were being used to circulate misleading information in her name.
Notably, According to the arguments presented in court, Kapoor is seeking restrictions on third-party commercial exploitation of her name, image and other elements associated with her persona. Her counsel also flagged fan pages that allegedly combine commercial use of her personality traits with obscene or profane content.
As per the latest buzz, The court indicated that protection could broadly cover three categories including material that is clearly pornographic or obscene, content that directly seeks to commercially monetise Kapoor’s personality rights, and the use of her name or likeness for selling merchandise or promoting services.
In further updates, At the same time, Justice Bhambhani questioned whether every fan page could be treated as an infringement, pointing out that some pages could merely be satirical or critical of an star’s work. The judge observed that commercial exploitation could justify intervention, but a blanket restriction on fan clubs would not necessarily be appropriate.
On top of that, Kapoor’s counsel as per reports submitted more than 4,000 URLs containing the disputed material. Representing Meta platforms, Advocate Varun Pathak argued that the URLs did not all contain material that could uniformly be classified as obscene or profane. He agreed that clearly objectionable content could be removed but sought narrower categories for the broader request.
The court has therefore asked Kapoor’s legal team to classify the material into appropriate categories before deciding on the scope of the order. Justice Bhambhani also cautioned against an overly broad interpretation of personality rights, noting that such claims should not become a means of suppressing legitimate expression or shielding alleged wrongdoing.
Source: Bollywood Hungama