NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Friday directed the immediate removal of objectionable deepfake content cited by a Delhi woman, who has accused Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) leaders of morphing and circulating her photographs alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the party’s protest at Jantar Mantar.A bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia also issued notices to the Delhi Police and the CJP leaders in the matter.The court further directed the police to provide protection to the woman, who has claimed that she is facing threats and abusive messages.The woman has accused CJP leaders Saurav Das, Abhijit Dipke, Ashutosh Ranka and Ratna Singh of morphing her face onto vulgar images alongside the prime minister and circulating the fabricated pictures.The court’s directions came after the plea was taken up for an urgent hearing.The matter had been mentioned before the bench by advocate Umesh Sharma, who said that an FIR had already been registered in connection with the allegations.The plea sought the removal and blocking of certain fabricated and deepfake pictures purportedly showing the woman’s morphed face in vulgar images alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The petitioner alleged that during recent protests held by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, respondents No. 2 to 5, identified as CJP leaders, along with their active accomplices, “unauthorisedly harvested” her personal photograph and used Artificial Intelligence (AI) face-swapping tools to morph her face onto a “highly vulgar, compromising image” alongside the Prime Minister of India.The plea further alleged that despite an FIR being registered, no concrete steps had been taken to apprehend those responsible or ensure the immediate takedown or blocking of the viral deepfake links.
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