Today, 20th June, The Delhi High Court ordered the takedown of a deepfake YouTube channel impersonating journalist Anjana Om Kashyap, stating that “fake pages misusing her reputation are illegal” and violate her goodwill, image, and personality rights.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court issued an order on Friday for the removal of a YouTube channel operating under the name of Anjana Om Kashyap, who is the anchor and Managing Editor (Special Projects) at Aaj Tak news channel.
Justice Prathiba M Singh delivered the ruling in response to a lawsuit filed by TV Today Network, the parent company of Aaj Tak, seeking a permanent injunction against impersonation and the violation of its intellectual property rights.
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The court was informed that the YouTube channel utilized ‘Deepfake’ technology to produce misleading and fabricated news videos, featuring the anchor as if she were delivering news on behalf of the organization.
In its interim order, the Court remarked that the page seemed to be fake, establishing that the plaintiff (TV Today) had a valid case for an interim injunction.
The Court stated,
“Considering the identity of the defendant no 2, the missing P in the word Kashyap, it is clear that the same appears to be a fake page. Such fake YouTube pages and fake profiles being made using her goodwill, reputation and personality is contrary to law. Accordingly, the plaintiff has made out a case for interim injunction,”
As a result, it instructed Google to remove the page within 48 hours and mandated the disclosure of the Basic Subscriber Information of the YouTube channel owner.
The Court directed,
“The identity of D2 is unknown and so it is directed that Google shall take down the YouTube channel within 48 hours and BSI details of the person who has put up this channel shall be disclosed in 2 weeks. Then the persons disclosed may be impleaded,”
Additionally, it required Google to provide information regarding the revenue generated by the fraudulent YouTube page.
It also stated that if any similar pages were created in the future, the URL should be submitted to Google for removal.
Advocate Hrishikesh Baruah, representing TV Today, previously argued that the YouTube channel was being utilized to disseminate fake news and generate income.
He contended,
“They upload fake videos including purported fake videos which do not belong to her,”
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The counsel for Google acknowledged that they would remove the page, but noted that Kashyap was not present in court. Baruah responded that she did not wish to be involved in the litigation.
However, the Court ruled that she must be included as a party to the case. Nevertheless, it proceeded to issue the takedown order.