On Tuesday, Delhi High Court directed a takedown of all online content concerning Janhvi Kapoor that can be deemed obscene. Earlier, Janhvi had moved the court, seeking removal of more than 5000 webpages and social media posts which contained pornographic AI-generated content of her, besides impersonation accounts and chatbots which were commercially exploiting her personality traits without consent.
Passing an interim order in a suit filed by Janhvi, who was seeking protection of her personality rights, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani asked Janhvi’s counsel to revert with a tabulated chart of the webpages that contain "ex facie pornographic, obscene, prurient, lascivious" content seen to be directly monetising her personality rights to promote sale of merchandise or services.
However, the Court also refuses to imply a blanket ban on all fanpages, officially observing, "We are not the conscience keepers of the nation. Solution may be worse than the problem. It was at the very root of free speech. You may not be misusing restraint order but there may be others who will.”
The Court also observed that being criticised and abuse is part of being in public domain and present on digital world, and no public personality can be immune to it. “Fan pages may be lampooning, adulatory of your work, critical of your work. You don't want fans? It is the digital world. No comments, no URLs...You will find yourself living in a cave," it further observed.
Additionally, The Court took a stern stance on the subject of the intersection between personality rights and copyrights, stating that the right to sell a copyrighted work, be it a poster or a photograph, is the copyright owners’ right.
While Advocate Varun Pathak, appearing for Meta, argued that it is not humanly possible to check all the flagged posts and links, the Court cautioned Meta, urging it not to overstep its role as an intermediary.
Janhvi Kapoor was represented by Advocates Asav Rajan Arora and Abha Shah. The next hearing date is August 17.
