Remove morphed photo of woman with PM, Delhi court orders Meta

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday directed Meta Platforms to immediately remove objectionable content of a woman's morphed picture posted on social media with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Justice Girish Kathpalia observed that this is an extraordinary position in which the matter is not of one woman but also of the country's prime minister. If the Delhi Police is not sensitive about it, the court will ensure it becomes sensitive, he further noted. The high court also issued notice to Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders Saurav Das, Abhijit Dipke,, Ashutosh Ranka and Ratna Singh on a plea by the woman alleging that they circulated her morphed and explicit picture with the prime minister.The court, which listed the matter for further hearing on October 14, directed the police to give complete police protection to the woman who submitted that she was receiving threats to her life.

The woman's plea accused the CJP leaders of morphing and circulating her deepfake vulgar pictures with Prime Minister Modi. The plea sought to take down certain fabricated and deepfake pictures purportedly showing the woman's morphed face in vulgar images alongside the prime minister. Her lawyer said that an FIR has already been registered in this regard.

However, he contended that no concrete steps were taken to apprehend those responsible or to secure the immediate takedown or blocking of the viral deepfake links. "During recent protests held by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, respondents No. 2 to 5 (CJP leaders) along with their active accomplices-unauthorisedly harvested the personal photograph of the petitioner and utilised Artificial Intelligence (AI) face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a highly vulgar, compromising image alongside the Prime Minister of India," the plea said.

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