Bombay HC admits Preity Zinta plea against social media, AI firms in deepfake dispute

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed actor Preity Zinta to file a suit against over a dozen firms, including social media platforms, internet firms, and artificial intelligence (AI) image-generation websites, for allegedly breaching her personality rights and copyrights, and eroding her goodwill through AI-generated deepfake videos and other digital content.

The actor and entrepreneur Zinta has named Google LLC, X Corp, Meta Platforms Inc, Cloudwhale Interactive Technology LLC, Alibaba Cloud Computing Beijing Co Ltd, GoDaddy Com LLC, Character Technologies Inc and Cloudflare Inc as respondents in the case.

The petition has also named Neural Love OU, Giphy Inc, Tenor, Inc, Cloudflare Inc, Nanonoble Pte Ltd, Character Technologies Inc and Subsup Pte Ltd among others as respondents in the case.


Justice Abhay Ahuja allowed the actor’s petition under Clause XII of the Letters Patent, a procedural requirement when part of the cause of action arises outside the court’s territorial jurisdiction.

Before the court’s order, Rohan Kadam, appearing for Zinta, argued that she is an Indian national who primarily resides and works for gain in Mumbai, and as such, her goodwill, reputation, persona, and features thereof are situated within the jurisdiction of this court.

Her counsel said that the dissemination of the offending materials is taking place not only in Mumbai but also worldwide. The actor, through her counsel, further argued that these acts affect her goodwill, reputation and persona and also amount to a violation of her moral rights under the Copyright Act.