Bombay High Court orders Preity Zinta deepfake takedown, asks platforms to curb misuse

4 min readMumbaiJul 8, 2026 04:46 PM IST

The Bombay High Court has directed Meta, Google and other online platforms to remove specified AI-generated deepfake content involving actor Preity Zinta (File photo).

In an interim relief to Bollywood actor Preity Zinta, the Bombay High Court directed Meta, Google LLC, and other entities, including social media platforms and websites, to take down specified artificial intelligence (AI)-generated deepfake videos and other manipulated digital content breaching her personal rights. The court also stressed that intermediaries and social media platforms should curb the misuse.

The High Court passed an order on the interim application by Zinta in her suit against various platforms and entities seeking the removal of objectionable content that also breached her copyrights and eroded her goodwill.

“Perusal of various contentions raised in the plaint as also the exhibits submitted with the plaint clearly shows that the plaintiff’s personality rights, publicity rights and moral rights are violated by the creation of such morphed deepfake and/or superimposed content comprising the plaintiff’s image, photograph or videos. The said rights flow from the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19 (1) (A) of the Constitution and the right to life with dignity and personal liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution,” a single-judge bench of Justice Madhav J Jamdar observed.

The court held that the “case was made out” to grant interim relief to the actor.

The judge orally remarked to Meta and other platforms, “As international organisations, you must be more concerned about such type of misuse and that your platform is being misused. If you start taking action, such offenders will stop and it will enhance your prestige. Otherwise, you are part of affecting fundamental rights of citizens of this country.”

Violation of Copyright Act

Senior Advocate Venkatesh Dhond, appearing for Zinta, contended that the defendants, including online platforms and websites, had created, uploaded, and circulated deepfake videos, memes, manipulated images, AI-generated chatbot personas, and other digital content, thereby making them publicly accessible and thereby infringing her rights.

He argued that misappropriation of any attribute of her personality without express permission for a commercial purpose was liable to be restrained and that unauthorised use of her performance prejudiced her reputation and violated her moral rights under the Copyright Act. Zinta sought directions to known websites, social media accounts, intermediaries and John Doe (all unknown persons) to remove such content.

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The lawyer representing Meta Platforms submitted that it had no issue with removing the YouTube links cited by Zinta. He, however, added that there would be some difficulty, as far as links to be communicated by her in the future were concerned, if some of them contained genuine photographs and material. The lawyer said that, in that case, the objection would be communicated to Zinta and her lawyers.

The bench said the parties will be at liberty to apply to the High Court seeking appropriate orders. Justice Jamdar also stated, “It was required to be noted that as per Rule 3 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, due diligence by intermediaries is also contemplated.”

Zinta is the latest celebrity to move the Bombay High Court seeking directions to remove objectionable content to protect her personality rights. Over the past two years, the court has granted similar relief to actors Kartik Aryan, Shatrughan Sinha, Shilpa Shetty, Akshay Kumar, and Suneil Shetty, as well as late veteran singer Asha Bhosale and singer Arijit Singh.

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