Delhi High Court Protects Cricketer Yuvraj Singh's Personality Rights Against AI Misuse, Orders Take Down Of Deepfakes
The Delhi High Court has passed an interim order protecting the personality rights of former Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh.
Justice Jyoti Singh observed that Yuvraj Singh had made out a prima facie case for grant of an ex parte ad interim injunction, holding that the balance of convenience was in his favour and that he would suffer irreparable harm if protection was denied.
The Court restrained defendants, including unidentified “John Doe” entities from using, reproducing, publishing or exploiting Singh's name, image, voice, likeness or any other personality attributes without his authorisation for commercial or personal gain.
This direction applies to anything generated through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Generative AI, machine learning, deepfakes, AI chatbots, face morphing and face swapping.
The judge also prohibited the creation and dissemination of AI-generated or manipulated audio-visual depictions featuring the cricketer.
The suit alleged that several social media accounts had published AI-generated images and videos portraying fabricated incidents involving the cricketer.
According to the plaint, one post falsely depicted Singh standing at the Golden Temple with his head uncovered, another showed a fellow cricketer touching his feet, while others portrayed him as violent or abusive. A Reddit post was also alleged to have falsely attributed misogynistic views to him.
Singh further alleged that unauthorised sellers were commercially exploiting his personality by selling T-shirts, photo frames and stickers featuring his name and likeness without his consent, thereby misleading consumers into believing that the products were endorsed by him.
Observing that personality rights have consistently been recognised and protected, Justice Singh noted that no third party has a right to use an individual's name, image or other personality attributes without consent.
The Court observed that Yuvraj Singh's stature as one of India's most celebrated cricketers gave him exclusive proprietary rights over his personality attributes and the right to protect them from unauthorised exploitation.
“There can be no dispute that Plaintiff's stature inherently grants him proprietary rights over his personality and associated attributes and gives him the exclusive rights to use the personality attributes for commercial purposes and consequently, the right to protect various attributes of his persona from unauthorized use or exploitation by third-parties,” the Court said.
It further held that the impugned AI-generated posts and deepfake videos tarnished Singh's goodwill and reputation built over years of sporting achievements and philanthropic work, while the unauthorised merchandise amounted to passing off and diminished the commercial value of his personality rights.
“There can be no doubt that violators of personality and privacy rights need to be dealt with a heavy hand,” Justice Singh said.
The Court accordingly directed Meta Platforms to take down specified URLs within 36 hours. It also ordered Amazon Seller Services and Flipkart to remove identified infringing listings, and two merchant defendants to remove specified URLs within 24 hours.
The Court clarified that if Yuvraj Singh discovers further infringing posts or videos in future, he would be at liberty to approach the concerned intermediary or avail appropriate legal remedies.
Title: YUVRAJ SINGH v. ASHOK KUMAR & ORS