Conceptual diagram of AI Photo: VCG

Multiple Chinese social media platforms are cracking down on intellectual property (IP) infringement through artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, with popular Chinese video-sharing app Douyin announcing on Thursday that it had removed more than 538,000 videos that were involved in IP infringement.

Douyin recently conducted a special campaign targeting typical violations involving AI, including AI-powered face-swapping, unauthorized use of celebrity likenesses, and the generation or dissemination of content that infringes on IP rights, as well as parody content, according to a statement posted on the company's public WeChat account.

As a result, more than 538,000 videos that were involved in AI infringement have been removed so far this year, and more than 4,000 violating accounts have been penalized. Furthermore, the platform has dealt with more than 30,000 pieces of inappropriate content and 1,300 accounts that used the "AI CEO" persona to mislead and lure interactions by middle-aged and elderly users, according to the platform.

Recently, Tencent's WeChat came up with a new rule that requires that all Official Accounts and Service Accounts on the platform are prohibited from using AI, scripts, application programming interfaces, or any other automated methods to replace human involvement in content creation and publishing workflows.

Hongguo Short Drama, a Chinese short-form drama platform under ByteDance, said on April 6 that it had dealt with 670 short dramas in accordance with platform rules after a targeted review found they had misused AI generated materials in the first quarter. According to an announcement on its official WeChat account, the sweep was part of a wider inspection of 15,000 works.

The proactive actions of these platforms reflect broad efforts across the digital content industry to crack down on IP infringement related to AI, but platforms should continue to strengthen their governance capabilities for the healthy and sustainable development of the AI sector, Liu Dingding, a veteran industry observer, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Liu pointed to some positive achievements in this regard -- for example, some videos are marked with notifications that they may involve AI-generated content. 

"By defending originality and combating AI abuse, platforms are laying a solid foundation for a vibrant, ethical, and thriving digital future," he said.

On the national level, regulators have been stepping up oversight in recent years. In January, the National Radio and Television Administration launched a nationwide month-long special campaign to curb the spread of improperly altered "AI mash-up" videos.

The campaign requires online audio-visual platforms to fulfill their primary responsibility, strengthen content review and management, resolutely remove non-compliant content, and take action against accounts that significantly contribute to these issues. 

On April 2, the Actors Committee of the China Federation of Radio and Television Associations released a statement against such frequent infringements that are currently occurring - including AI face-swapping and synthesis, voice cloning and replication, arbitrary tampering with or "wild" modification of film and television footage, and unauthorized capture of actor images and voices for AI model training, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Global Times