Before the Delhi High Court, social intermediaries said Baba Ramdev’s personality rights suit targets parody, satire, and fact-checks. They warned such directions would violate free speech, citing protected content like elephant-riding videos, allopathic treatment posts, and petrol price references.
NEW DELHI: Social media intermediaries informed the Delhi High Court that Baba Ramdev’s personality rights lawsuit also seeks to remove content such as parody, satire, political commentary, news reports, and fact-checks.
The lawyers representing the social media platforms argued that issuing such orders would infringe upon citizens’ freedom of speech.
Some of the specific content targeted for removal includes videos of Ramdev riding an elephant, posts depicting him lying down for treatment from an allopathic doctor, and references to petrol prices. They asserted that such forms of expression are legally protected.
Counsel representing X noted that Ramdev had flagged 16 URLs on the platform, of which 14 had already been taken down. He mentioned that one of the flagged users had changed his name to Karl Marx.
He stated,
“So, unless Karl Marx files for personality rights, I think the plaintiff [Ramdev] is satisfied.”
Meanwhile, advocate Varun Pathak, representing Meta, acknowledged that while they are willing to remove offensive content, news reporting should not be restricted under personality rights.
Pathak queried,
“Egregious content we have no problem in removing, but the question is if a news channel reports falsely against the plaintiff, does that give him a personality right?”
The intermediaries also opposed any requests for global blocking orders or dynamic injunctions (proactively removing content) in this case. However, Justice Jyoti Singh highlighted that there was no request for a dynamic injunction and that the Court was not contemplating this either.
Senior Advocate Rajiv Nayar, representing Ramdev, objected to the arguments made by the social media intermediaries. He stated that fairness is expected from these platforms, but in this case, they appeared to be resisting the removal of defamatory content.
He stated,
“In every case, the intermediary is fairer; suddenly in this case…They [infringers] have used my image,”
Nayar also contended that the posts he aims to have removed are disparaging.
He emphasized,
“Wherever there is disparagement affecting my personality rights, I am saying they should be taken down. I am shown lying down, and my chyawanprash is inducing me to go to allopathy,”
After hearing the case, Justice Singh observed a disagreement between Ramdev’s counsel and the social media intermediaries regarding content removal. Therefore, she instructed Ramdev to provide a list of content he wishes to be taken down, and for the social media intermediaries to submit their objections.
The Court stated,
“I will go through them and decide,”
The case is scheduled for a hearing on February 18.
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Ramdev has filed a personality rights lawsuit aimed at protecting his voice, image, likeness, unique style of communication, and other attributes that are uniquely identifiable to him. He seeks orders to prevent unauthorized use of his names, including “Ramdev,” “Swami Ramdev,” “Baba Ramdev,” “Yog Guru Ramdev,” “Yog Guru Swami Ramdev,” and other associated titles.
The lawsuit claims that his name, likeness, and persona hold significant goodwill and trust, which various entities are exploiting through deepfakes, false endorsements, and unauthorized commercial associations. It further alleges that his persona is being utilized to create entertaining content for online engagement.
The suit has been filed through Advocates Simranjeet Singh, Rishabh Pant, and Osheen Verma of Athena Legal. Central Government Standing Counsel (CGSC) Satya Ranjan Swain represented the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY).