Delhi High Court Orders Meta to Remove Deepfakes

The Delhi High Court ordered Meta Platforms to immediately remove identified deepfakes and fake profiles as part of a lawsuit filed by educator Vikas Divyakirti, founder of Drishti IAS. Divyakirti alleged that his intellectual property was exploited through altered lecture clips and deepfake betting advertisements designed to portray him as anti-Brahmin and Hindu-phobic.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani criticized Instagram's Remix feature, which allows users to create reels from existing public videos, calling it a tool for copyright violation. The court expressed concern over the power of these tools when handed to unidentified users and highlighted a systemic imbalance in platform copyright-strike mechanisms. The court noted that bad-faith copyright complaints often lead to immediate account suspensions, while legitimate creators face lengthy delays to restore their content.

Meta Platforms argued that constant monitoring of all user-generated content is neither feasible nor desirable and that the platform is not responsible for the misuse of downloaded videos. While the court granted interim relief to Divyakirti and directed intermediaries to provide subscriber information and IP logs of offending accounts, it deferred a decision on certain edited clips to determine if they constitute protected criticism or commentary under the Copyright Act.