Bollywood actor Salman Khan has joined a long list of public personalities in the fight for the protection of their personality rights. In the hearing today, the Delhi High Court directed the social media platforms mentioned in the actor’s complaint to act within three days.
Amid the advancing gamut of artificial intelligence, several Hollywood and Bollywood actors have waged their war against deepfakes and the creation of other such content with malicious intentions.
Khan, represented by Parag H Khandhar and Chandrima Mitra, sought protection of his personality rights. Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora also shared that she will pass a detailed interim restraining order regarding the other intermediaries impleaded in the matter.
Khan’s case, Salman Khan v Ashok Kumar/John Doe & Ors, seeks directions against several entities. This includes unknown defendants, and aims to restrain them from unauthorisedly using his personality rights.
Salman Khan’s complaint would be treated under the Information and Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. It was a specific strike against social media platforms and e-commerce websites using his name, images, persona, and likeness to promote merchandise.
What are personality rights?
While the Indian Constitution does not recognise personality rights in a single statute, but recognises them through case law. They are linked to the rights to privacy and publicity under Article 21 of the Constitution. They protect an individual’s control over the commercial and non‑commercial use of their identity traits such as name, image, voice, likeness, signature, mannerisms and other distinctive features.
There have been several judicial decisions involving celebrities like Rajinikanth, Jackie Shroff, and Anil Kapoor, along with Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Karan Johar, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and Jaggi Vasudev. The overall misuse of their personal details is considered a violation of consent of their personality rights. The ruling can restrain such actions through injunctions, passing-off actions, or privacy claims.
Hollywood and privacy rights
Several Hollywood actors like Scarlett Johansson, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts have taken legal action against brands and firms with non-consented eerily similar content to their identity. The Avengers actor objected to OpenAI when their voice assistant sounded strikingly similar to her character from the movie Her. In fact, the Ocean’s and Notting Hill headliners raised their voice against a home decor brand which used their voices to imply the actors’ endorsement.