New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday listed Indian cricket team head coach Gautam Gambhir’s plea for hearing on March 23 to stop the misuse and abuse of his image, voice and other attributes of his personality to create deepfake content and for commercial gain.
Gambhir’s counsel before Justice Jyoti Singh said that apart from the violation of his personality rights, his dignity is also at issue.
Lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai argued that the offensive content had “material consequences” for Gambhir as there were fabricated videos purportedly showing him resigning as head coach after performing poorly in a match or attacking a teammate.
“Some things have material consequences. Imagine the head coach of the Indian team and words are put in his mouth via deepfake saying that he is resigning from the team. It has created a lot of problems,” Dehadrai said.
“Its commercial value is proven. It has endorsements from major brands,” the lawyer added.
Dehadrai further informed the court that the user who posted the resignation video, which has 29,000 views, has taken it down and apologized after the suit was filed.
Claiming that Gambhir has 23 years of national service as a player and is now a coach, Dehadrai sought an interim injunction at this stage to prevent several entities, including unnamed defendants, from abusing his personality rights.
The court adjourned the hearing in the case after noticing certain inconsistencies in the pleading and giving the defense attorney time to make corrections.
In the lawsuit, Gambhir sought guidance on how to protect his personality and publicity rights from a coordinated digital impersonation campaign, AI-generated deepfakes and unauthorized commercial exploitation across social media platforms.
The lawsuit said there are several social media accounts that use artificial intelligence, face-swapping and voice-cloning technologies to create realistic videos falsely portraying Gambhir.
The lawsuit also alleged the unauthorized sale of merchandise bearing his name and likeness on e-commerce platforms.
