Could Face Swapping With Celebs On Snapchat Ever Be A Crime?

After a comedian was slammed for using celebrity face swaps to make 'offensive' videos in their likeness on Snapchat, an interesting argument has arisen...

Could Face Swapping With Celebs On Snapchat Ever Be A Crime?

by Jess Commons |
Published on

OK, here's something a little complicated. If you face swap yourself with someone famous on Snapchat and then say offensive stuff whilst you look like that person - are you in trouble with the law?

It's the question that's arisen after Indian comedian Tanmay Bhat posted a video on his Snapchat called Sachin vs Lata Civil War. In the video, Bhat face swapped with a picture of Sachin Tendulkar (if you're not a cricket lover I am told that Sachin is the Pele or David Beckham of cricket, the most famous man in India and possibly any other cricket loving nation, also he's very handsome) and Lata Mangeshkar, the most famous playback singer (an often Indian profession where singers record songs to be mimed by famous actors in films) in India - by all accounts, the 86-year-old is a very big deal.

In the video, the two celebrities (with their faces worn by Bhat) throw insults at each other with Lata saying that she is 5000 years old and still a better cricketer than Sachin. Sachin (but really Bhat) says that Jon Snow has died and so should Lata and her face looks like someone has kept it in water for eight days. The video is below if you can handle the madness.

Many people found the video mocking two of the country's most celebrate icons to be wildly offensive. Anupam Kher, one of Bollywood's most famous actors tweeted, 'I am 9 times winner of #BestComicActor. Have a great sense of humor. But This's NOT humor. #Disgusting&Disrespectful.' Other celebs followed suit.

Amey Khopkar, president of right wing party Maharashtra Navnirman Chitrapat Karmachari Sena went so far as to file a police complaint against Bhat and, as of today, the Indian Police have ordered Facebook and Youtube to take the video down - and the Indian Express are claiming that Facebook has complied - although the video is still plain to see on Tanmay's Facebook page. Obvs it being 24 hours after posting, it's already gone from Snapchat.

Snapchat, for their part, are pretty vague when it comes to using other peoples' likenesses. According to their terms and conditions, the company 'respects the rights of others. And so should you. You therefore may not upload, post, send, or store content that violates or infringes someone else's rights of publicity, privacy, copyright, trademark, or other intellectual-property right, bullies, harasses, or intimidates, defames or spams or solicits Snapchat's users.'

Defamation by UK law is defined as ' a spoken or written expression which is deemed to harm the reputation of an individual and proved to be false.' Surely no-one offended by Bhat taking Sachin and Lata's likeness believes the video to the extent that Sachin and Lata's reputations are at stake however, otherwise why would they be offended?

But it's an interesting argument. What would happen for instance if someone face swapped with Justin Bieber and started making derogatory racial epithets? What if, one day soon, the technology is so good, you could assume the exact likeness of Kylie Jenner and make a video of her appearing to support controversial political party? One thing's for sure; face swapping is about to get reeeeeeal interesting.

One person who couldn't give a crap about any of this though is the excellent sounding Lata Mangeshkar who was informed about the video by her sister's grandson. She hasn't watched the video and doesn't plan to. In fact, she said, after refusing to comment on the situation, 'by the way, I don't know who is Tanmay Bhat.'

Like this? Then you might also be interested in:

The New Snapchat Update Comes With One-Handed Zoom, Fancy

How To Use Snapchat Filters Like A Pro

Kim And Kourtney Kardashian Have Done The Most Successful Face-Swap Ever

Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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