Kathmandu— Cyberspace authorities across China have launched a crackdown on the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, removing over 5.6 million pieces of unlawful or rule-violating content and taking action against more than 49,000 accounts as part of a nationwide campaign. The campaign also dealt with over 2,400 websites and apps found in violation of the rules, focusing on issues such as false information fabrication, violent or vulgar content production, impersonation using AI, and content that infringes on minors' rights.

Regulatory Framework

The latest crackdown comes amid China's ongoing efforts to refine its regulatory framework for generative AI. In August 2023, new rules took effect requiring providers of generative AI services to fulfill personal information protection obligations. Additionally, content-labeling regulations will take effect from September 2025, mandating that AI-generated text, images, audio, and video carry visible or embedded identifiers.

Regional Enforcement Approaches

Authorities in different regions have adopted varying enforcement approaches. In Beijing, platforms are directed to upgrade content-review systems to better detect new variants of banned material. Shanghai regulators have pushed for internal audits by platforms and the issuance of public-facing materials explaining AI-related risks.

Platform Responses

Major Chinese online platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, Tencent, Baidu, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Zhihu, Douban, and Taobao have strengthened multimodal detection systems and expanded databases to identify manipulated faces, cloned voices, and known violation samples. AI chatbot and content-generation services like ByteDance's Doubao, Tencent's Yuanbao, Alibaba's Qwen, and Baidu's Ernie Bot have tightened review of training and output content while stepping up compliance with the new labeling requirements.

Examples of Penalties

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) highlighted examples of accounts and applications that had been penalized. These include social media accounts using AI face- and voice-swapping tools to impersonate public figures, as well as websites and platforms hosting AI agents whose cover images, profile descriptions, or generated dialogue contained sexually explicit material or other content harmful to minors.

The CAC stated that it will continue monitoring emerging risks tied to AI-generated content and take further steps to curb misuse of the technology while fostering healthy and orderly development of AI applications in China.

(With inputs from Xinhua)

Originally published on abcnews.com.np.