Union Minister Nitin Gadkari Gets Bombay HC Nod To Sue Meta, Google, X Over E20 Deepfakes

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has received permission from the Bombay High Court to file a civil suit against social media platforms over content linking him and his family to financial gains from the E20 ethanol-blended petrol programme.

The proposed suit names platforms including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, X, Google and unidentified entities accused of circulating deepfake videos, edited clips and misleading posts. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Telecommunications have also been included as respondents. Gadkari has stated that the E20 programme is under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and that he has no role in its formulation, implementation or administration. He has sought removal of the content and action against those responsible for creating and sharing the material.

The court will consider interim relief at the next stage of proceedings.