Preity Zinta moves Bombay High Court against deepfakes, AI generated content

Bollywood actor Preity Zinta has approached the Bombay High Court seeking injunction against AI‑generated deepfake images and morphed content featuring her [Preity Zinta v. Google LLC & Ors.].Justice Madhav Jamdar on July 3 indicated that he will pass orders on July 6, Monday after the parties work out a mechanism for takedown of the offending material from the websites..In her suit, Zinta has made several intermediaries as respondents, including Google and Meta, as well as domain name registrars and identified infringers. She has pointed to videos, images and chatbot‑style interactions depicting her through AI‑generated deepfakes and morphed visuals hosted on their platforms. .Senior advocate Venkatesh Dhond, appearing for Zinta, submitted that the quality of the deepfakes was steadily improving. He pressed for urgent ex parte orders directing known websites and intermediaries to take down or remove all infringing content highlighted in the suit papers..Dhond also sought John Doe directions against unknown infringing entities and a broader restraint order prohibiting all infringers from posting unauthorised content featuring Zinta..The lawyers appearing for Google and Meta told the court they did not object to deleting links carrying morphed or obscene content identified by the plaintiff, but urged that no blanket direction be issued requiring them to proactively monitor or remove non‑infringing material. They argued that some of the flagged URLs do not contain such content. .A domain name registrar submitted that it merely registers domain names and cannot itself act on URLs which lead to content hosted on social media platforms. .Justice Jamdar acknowledged that any order must be calibrated to target objectionable material without disrupting legitimate online content. While agreeing that protective orders are warranted on the merits, he asked counsel for all the parties to confer and evolve a practical protocol under which genuinely objectionable content can be taken down while genuine links are left undisturbed. .The matter will be heard next on July 6.