Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the removal of some objectionable social media content targeting MP Raghav Chadha, who recently defected from the AAP to the BJP, while critiquing politicians’ thin-skinned response to satirical humour.

Justice Subramonium Prasad was dealing with Chadha’s plea against the publication of alleged malicious and fabricated social media posts that were gravely prejudicial to his reputation and personality rights.

The court directed the social media platforms to take down within two weeks the objectionable content that it found to be explicit, profane, vulgar and falling outside the purview of harmless satirical humour.

However, it also found that the majority of the content, mostly dealing with Chadha’s defection, was not offensive or defamatory and could be treated as political humour.

Observing that such things are a part and parcel of politics, the court said: “A public figure should not be so thin-skinned so as to complain about any criticism of his decisions and such criticism ought to be viewed with humility.”

“Any action by a politician belonging to any political party will... invite criticism from... the general public or members from rival political parties, which may at times be expressed in the form of satirical humour,” the court said. “However, that does not automatically make such content offensive or defamatory,” it added.

Underscoring that a “fair balance” has to be struck, the court said it was not endorsing the use of AI to produce deepfake videos and morphed images to harm an individual’s dignity.