The Delhi High Court directed the removal of tweets alleging Gaurav Bhatia’s assault and the privatization of related YouTube videos, citing concerns over “deepfake videos.” These videos were deemed harmful to Bhatia’s reputation and could be misused in the future.
NEW DELHI: Today (16th April): The Delhi High Court issued an order to take down multiple posts and videos on social media platforms, including X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube, that falsely alleged Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Senior Advocate Gaurav Bhatia was “beaten up” by lawyers in a Noida court.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna ordered that videos on YouTube alleging that Bhatia was beaten up must be made private during the pendency of his defamation suit against them. The court has deemed these claims as baseless and defamatory, and has directed the removal of the content until the pending defamation suit filed by Bhatia is resolved.
The court specifically referred to “deepfake” videos, which portrayed Bhatia being beaten up, as well as social media posts that propagated these false allegations. It condemned the dissemination of such misleading content, stating that it not only tarnished Bhatia’s reputation but also posed a potential ongoing threat to his image. The court highlighted the risk of misuse of these videos in the future and therefore ordered that they be removed from the public domain until the final resolution of the defamation suit.
“The videos in question, if disseminated or played publicly, not only have already harmed the plaintiff’s reputation, as claimed, but also pose a potential ongoing threat of future misuse against the plaintiff. These videos, which prima facie portray the applicant/plaintiff in a potentially misleading manner, must therefore be restricted from the public domain until the Suit reaches a final decision,” stated the Court.
“The remaining posts by X that are yet to be removed must be taken down within 7 days. Furthermore, defendant No.14 [Google/YouTube] is directed to make the videos currently in the public domain private and not to be re-published without this Court’s permission.”
In his defamation suit, Gaurav Bhatia recounted an incident from March 20 at a district court in Gautam Budh Nagar, Noida, where his lawyer’s bands were allegedly snatched by an advocate in front of a judge.
On the same day, YouTube channels Article 19 and News Launcher uploaded videos titled
“Police vakeelo se chhudati, Gaurav Bhatia ki Dhulai ho chuki thi (Before police could rescue Gaurav Bhatia from lawyers, he was beaten up)” and “BJP Pravakta Gaurav Bhatia ko vakeelo ne koot diya, Godi Media Muh Chhupati Fir Rahi (BJP Spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia beaten up by lawyers, Godi Media is hiding its face),” respectively.
They argued that these videos, along with others mentioned, were defamatory and had gained significant viewership, portraying Bhatia in a negative light and undermining his professional and political credibility as a Senior Advocate and BJP spokesperson.
READ ALSO: SCBA Calls for Disciplinary Action Against Lawyer for ‘Assault on Gaurav Bhatia’
In his defamation suit, Bhatia argued that the videos not only accused him of indecent behavior, physical assault, and dishonorable conduct but also employed derogatory language to portray him as a thug and a disgrace.
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