File photo of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. | Photo credit: PTI
The Delhi High Court on Friday (May 8, 2026) said it will grant an interim order to protect the personality rights of Mr Shashi Tharoor after the Congress leader approached the court seeking the removal of grossly fake videos of him circulating online and falsely attributing him to statements he never made.
Justice Mini Pushkarna also issued notices to the defendants in the suit, including social media platforms like X and Meta, the owner of Instagram.
Senior advocate Amit Sibal, appearing for Mr. Tharoor, told the court that three specific deeply fake videos are in circulation and that a remedy has already been taken under the applicable rules by notifying the secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as well as the Delhi Deputy Commissioner of Police.
Mr. Sibal said that even though some versions of the videos were taken down, they kept reappearing online under different URLs. “They keep coming back like the ten heads of Ravana,” he remarked.
He further alleged that Mr Tharoor, who is a public servant and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, was falsely instructed to make politically sensitive statements, “even in relation to India’s relationship with foreign countries”.
Mr Sibal pointed out that these deeply fake videos could be misused by foreign states as some of them appeared on websites based in Pakistan.
The court’s senior counsel also said that several media fact-checkers had already concluded that the videos were fabricated, but members of the public continued to believe they were authentic. “His (Mr Tharoor’s) own reputation and goodwill are tarnished by these deeply false videos which contain statements he never made,” Mr Sibal alleged.
Meta’s legal representative informed the court that all identified Instagram posts were taken down that day. However, X did not file any response in the matter at the time of the hearing.
Mr. Tharoor is the incumbent Member of Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.
Several public figures such as actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Salman Khan, Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and podcaster Raj Shamani have earlier approached the Supreme Court seeking protection of their personalities and right to publicity. The High Court granted them an injunction.
Published – 8 May 2026 11:50 AM IST
