The Delhi High Court today refused to pass any directions to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to stop the circulation of deepfake videos amid the Lok Sabha elections.
A Division Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said that the Court cannot pass such directions during the elections and that it trusts that the ECI will take appropriate action.
Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta said that the ECI certifies any political advertisement meant for print and electronic media and a similar mechanism should be put in place for the content on social media as well.
Nonetheless, the Bench responded that it may be very difficult and politicians interact with people on the street or mohalla as well. The court further asked the petitioner to file a representation with the ECI which the election body has to decide by May 6 and take appropriate steps.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission informed the bench that the videos of Amit Shah, Rahul Gandhi, Aamir Khan and Ranveer Singh referred to in the petition have been taken down and criminal complaints have been filed as well.
Consecutively, the Court verbally remarked that the accounts which are posting fake videos repeatedly must be acted against and their names should be put in public domain as well. It also remarked that ECI can also think of dynamic injunction so that retweets of the deepfake videos can also be disabled. Nonetheless, the High Court refused to pass any directions to ECI to formulate any guidelines.
The plea was lodged by a lawyers’ body named Lawyers’ Voice seeking directions to the ECI to formulate and implement the necessary guidelines and executive action necessary to address the public harm and democratic crisis caused by the pervasive use of deepfake technologies in political campaigns for 2024 Lok Sabha Election.