NEW DELHI: Social media platform X on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that any content on satire, fair comment and public speech should be protected from takedown orders seeking protection of personality rights.
Satire, freedom of speech should be protected: X in Delhi High Court on Ramdev’s personality rights pleaJustice Jyoti Singh was hearing a case of Baba Ramdev alleging large-scale misuse and commercial exploitation of his personality, image and identity on various online and social media platforms.
Counsel for X, formerly of Twitter, opposed the “arbitrary” blocking of accounts in privacy cases when there was nothing “egregious,” saying such orders have a chilling effect on free speech.
He also referred to a post mentioned in Ramdev’s case, a meme, and claimed that it was satire that was protected in a democracy.
“This is pure satire. I fail to see how it violates individual rights. It is protected. Satire, fair comment and public speech are protected by individual rights. Satire is part of democracy. There is no democracy without free speech”.
X’s counsel also said that the offending account on his platform, bearing his name, was merely a parody account, which should be protected in this case.
Along similar lines, counsel for the Meta platform also said that while it is not opposed to taking down critical content, there must be some “tangible monetization” by third parties, especially when a global blocking order is being sought.
He also said that most of the offending content was from news agencies and in case of any complaint, Ramdev should file a case against them for any wrong information.
“You cannot have personality rights against a news channel for putting your name in a news article,” the lawyer said as he expressed concern about the impact on fair reporting.
Both X and the Meta platform said they had removed some of the offending content.
The lawyer appearing for Ramdev said social media platforms should be fair and the content in question was damaging his reputation.
In his suit, Ramdev said that several entities on the social media platform had published and circulated AI-generated deepfake videos, doctored photos, etc. to commercially profit and exploit various aspects of his personality, which violated his right to personality and publicity and violated his fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
“The AI-enabled and disguised nature carries the risk of irreversible dilution of the plaintiff’s spiritual personhood where it was held that the sanctity of a spiritual leader’s identity enhances protection,” the lawsuit said.
“The dissemination of these infringing materials is continuous, unlimited, and capable of instant replication, and continues despite the knowledge and hosting by major intermediaries such as Google, Meta Platforms Inc., 10 and X-Corp. The infringing materials continue to be widely accessible in this regional trial and as a result of the harmful court retrial. The cause of action is persistent,” it added.
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The next hearing will be held on February 18.
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