HC orders social media platforms to act on Pawan's plea
What's the story
The Delhi High Court on Friday ordered social media intermediaries to address Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan's plea for protection of his personality rights within seven days. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora emphasized that Kalyan had already approached these platforms with his grievances. The court also noted that the same process was applied in a recent case involving actor Ajay Devgn, where plaintiffs were asked to first file their grievance with the intermediaries before moving the court.
Legal proceedings
Court's directive to social media intermediaries
The court has instructed the social media intermediaries to process Kalyan's plea as a formal complaint under the Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. They must take the required action within seven days. If they have any concerns about the links provided by Kalyan, they have to notify him. The court also instructed Kalyan to provide the URLs of the content he wants taken down within 48 hours.
Case details
Kalyan's grievances and further hearing
Kalyan, a member of the Janasena Party (JSP), had approached the court to prevent unauthorized use of his name and images by social media platforms and e-commerce websites. Senior advocate J Sai Deepak, representing Kalyan, said the deputy CM was aggrieved by artificial intelligence (AI) videos of him circulating on Google, impersonation and fake association content on Meta and e-commerce platforms. The matter is scheduled for further hearing on December 22.
Celebrity cases
Other celebrities seeking protection of personality rights
Kalyan and Devgn aren't the only ones seeking protection of their personality rights. Recently, Bollywood stars like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, and singer Kumar Sanu have also approached the high court for similar reasons. Other public figures include filmmaker Karan Johar, Telugu actor Akkineni Nagarjuna, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary, and podcaster Raj Shamani. The court has granted them interim relief as well.