Court orders takedown of obscene Janhvi Kapoor content, questions fanpage ban

Janhvi Kapoor asked the Delhi High Court to act against obscene posts, impersonation and deepfakes using her identity. The court signalled immediate relief for clearly abusive and commercial misuse, while questioning any blanket ban on fan pages.

In Short

• Kapoor cited impersonation accounts, deepfakes and misleading profiles on major platforms
• Her counsel said some pages exploited her identity and posted obscene images
• Meta said over 4,000 URLs were filed, many not obscene

Actor Janhvi Kapoor approached the Delhi High Court on Tuesday seeking protection of her personality rights, alleging that pornographic and obscene content, impersonation on social media, and AI-generated deepfakes were being circulated using her name and likeness. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said the court would pass an ex parte ad-interim order for the removal or takedown of obscene and profane content, but questioned whether a blanket order against all fan pages could be granted.

According to LiveLaw report, the court said it was inclined to grant relief in three categories of content: material that is ex facie pornographic and obscene, material that is ex facie monetising Kapoor's personality rights directly, and material using her likeness and name to promote the sale of merchandise or services. During the hearing, the judge also said the issue of personality rights needed clearer limits, orally remarking, "I want you all (counsels) to assist me to give sanity to the concept of personality rights. It is going out of hand."

Appearing for Kapoor, Advocate Asav Rajan said the actor was aggrieved by pornographic content, accounts impersonating her on social media, and images generated through AI technology and deepfakes. He said Kapoor was also objecting to fake social media profiles on Meta Platforms and X Corp, formerly Twitter, which carried misleading information about her. Rajan submitted that social media traction concerning Kapoor, including commercial exploitation, must relate to her personality alone and that no other person could indulge in the same. He said the infringing fan page links amounted to profanity and included obscene photographs.

On this, the court said obscene content and content using Kapoor's personality for commercial purposes could be ordered to be taken down, but it raised questions over passing a dynamic injunction for other impugned content. Justice Bhambhani said, "A part of it may be satire or critical of your work. Fanpages is your monopoly. Are you sure?... If they are monetising or there is commercial exploitation then yes but not all fanpages are (offending)." He further observed, "How do we draw the line? In law, we can only do so much and no more. To completely restrain everything cannot be the approach. Where there is obscenity or monetising or extremely egregious or inappropriate content I am with you but how can you shut down all fanclubs? Who is immune from all this today? Anybody who is in public domain they are being abused left right and centre. So what? We are abused, that's different. But you are in public domain. We will draw a line but where do we put the line?... Today many people are trying to hide their wrongdoings by saying celebrity or personality rights. How can court allow that?"

Kapoor's counsel then said he had classified the disputed material under the category of content impersonating the actor's accounts and argued that such pages could not be allowed to exist because they were commercially using her personality elements and posting obscene photos. Appearing for Meta Platforms, Advocate Varun Pathak said Kapoor had filed more than 4,000 URLs and that not all of them were profane or obscene. He said egregious content could be removed, but overly broad claims would have to be narrowed into clear categories. The court then asked Kapoor's counsel to divide the claims into broad categories and said an appropriate order would be passed.

The matter also came against the backdrop of a series of personality rights orders passed by the Delhi High Court. The court has protected the personality rights of actor Tabu; cricketers Abhishek Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and Sunil Gavaskar; Congress leader Shashi Tharoor; Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan; entrepreneur Aman Gupta; actors Allu Arjun, Mohanlal, Kajol Devgan, R Madhavan and NTR Junior; spiritual preacher Aniruddhacharya; and singer Jubin Nautiyal. A similar suit has also been filed by actor Salman Khan. Coordinate benches have also passed orders protecting the personality rights of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Nagarjuna, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Karan Johar. The court has also protected the personality rights of journalist Sudhir Chaudhary in an earlier case.

For now, the court has indicated that relief will be limited to clearly identifiable categories such as obscene material, commercial misuse and content promoting goods or services through Kapoor's name or likeness, while broader claims against all fan pages and non-obscene critical material will require closer consideration.

- Ends