Satire should be protected in personality rights cases, X tells HC

Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a lawsuit by Baba Ramdev alleging large-scale misappropriation and commercial exploitation of his personality, image, and identity across various online and social media platforms

Social media platform X on Tuesday told the Delhi high court that any content in the realm of satire, fair comment and public speech should be protected from takedown orders in cases seeking protection of personality rights.

Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a lawsuit by Baba Ramdev alleging large-scale misappropriation and commercial exploitation of his personality, image, and identity across various online and social media platforms.

The counsel for X, formerly Twitter, opposed the "indiscriminate" blocking of accounts in personality right suits when there was nothing "egregious", saying such orders have a chilling effect on freedom of speech.

He also referred to a post mentioned in Ramdev's lawsuit, a meme, and contended that it was satire which was protected in a democracy.

"This is purely satire. How does this violate personality rights I fail to understand. This is protected. Satire, fair comment and public speech is protected from personality right. Satire is part of democracy. There is no democracy without free speech," he said.

X's counsel also said that one of the objectionable accounts on its platform, bearing his name, was merely a parody account, which should be protected in this case.

Along similar lines, counsel for Meta Platforms also said that while it was not opposed to taking down of egregious content, there must be some "tangible monetisation" by a third party, especially when a global blocking order was being sought.

He also stated that most offending content was from news organisations and in case of any grievance, Ramdev should sue them for any incorrect information.

"You can't have a personality right against a news channel in putting your name in a news article," the lawyer said as he raised concerns of impact on fair reporting.

Both X and Meta Platforms said they have taken down certain offending content.

Counsel appearing for Ramdev said the social media platforms should be fair and the content in question was damaging his reputation.

In his lawsuit, Ramdev said several entities on social media platforms have published and circulated AI-generated deepfake videos, doctored images, etc, to commercially gain from and exploit various aspects of his personality, amounting to infringement of his personality and publicity rights and violating his fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

"The pattern of AI-manipulation and impersonation carries the risk of irreversible dilution of the Plaintiff's spiritual persona where it was held that the sanctity of a spiritual leader's identity warrants heightened protection," the lawsuit said.

"The dissemination of these infringing materials is continuous, borderless, and capable of instantaneous replication, and persists despite the knowledge and hosting by major intermediaries such as Google (YouTube), Meta Platforms Inc.(Facebook/Instagram), 10 and X-Corp. The infringing content continues to be widely accessible within the territorial jurisdiction of this Hon'ble Court, resulting in recurring harm and a persistent cause of action," it added.

The matter would be heard next on February 18.