HC to hear Nitin Gadkari’s plea against Meta, others over deepfakes, AI posts on August 5

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said it would hear on August 5 Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s suit against Meta, X Corp, Google LLC and unknown persons for “defamatory” deepfakes and AI-generated posts uploaded against him over the ethanol policy.

The bench of Justice Arif Doctor directed the Union minister’s advocate Sandeep Ladda to serve the respondents copies of the civil suit, seeking a permanent injunction against the circulation of posts that allegedly tarnished his reputation.

Gadkari, in his plea, sought an immediate takedown of all fake and fabricated content, along with an injunction against the circulation of such content.

The senior BJP leader, who is serving as the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, has claimed that several fake, AI-generated and defamatory posts were available online regarding the ethanol-blended fuel issue.

Unknown persons have uploaded and circulated posts and deepfake content falsely portraying him as being personally responsible for the programme, and alleging that he and his family have financially benefited from it, the plea stated.

It alleged that this has caused irreparable harm to Gadkari’s reputation and personality rights.

The allegations made in the online posts are “false, malicious and grossly defamatory without an iota of doubt”, the suit stated, adding that it is designed to create a misleading public perception against Gadkari.

It stated that the ethanol-blending programme and E20 policy are administered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, not him personally.

While the plea clarified that no attempt was being made to stifle fair public debate or bona fide comments, it claimed that reckless and defamatory allegations had crossed the line of lawful speech.