China's Major Social Media Platforms Implement AI Content Labeling in Compliance with New Regulations

Chinese social media platforms roll out labels for AI-generated material

Major social media platforms in China have started rolling out labels for AI-generated content to comply with a law that took effect on Monday. Users of the likes of WeChat, Douyin, Weibo and RedNote (aka Xiaohongshu) are now seeing such labels on posts. These denote the use of generative AI in text, images, audio, video and other types of material, according to the . Identifiers such as watermarks have to be included in metadata too. WeChat has told users they must proactively apply labels to their AI-generated content. They're also prohibited from removing, tampering with or hiding any AI labels that WeChat applies itself, or to use "AI to produce or spread false information, infringing content or any illegal activities." ByteDance's Douyin -- the Chinese version of TikTok -- similarly urged users to apply a label to every post of theirs that includes AI-generated material while noting it's able to use metadata to detect where a piece of content content came from. Weibo, meanwhile, has added the option for users to report "unlabelled AI content" option when they see something that should have such a label. Four agencies drafted the law -- which was -- including the main internet regulator, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Public Security and the National Radio and Television Administration also helped put together the legislation, which is being enforced to help oversee the tidal wave of genAI content. In April, the CAC a three-month campaign to regulate AI apps and services. Mandatory labels for AI content could help folks better understand when they're seeing AI slop and/or misinformation instead of something authentic. Some US companies that provide genAI tools offer similar labels and are starting to bake such identifiers into hardware. Google's are the first phones that implement (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) content credentials .

China's top social media platforms take steps to comply with new AI content labeling rules - SiliconANGLE

China's top social media platforms take steps to comply with new AI content labeling rules China's top social media platforms, including ByteDance Ltd.'s Tiktok clone Douying and Tencent Holding's WeChat, rolled out new features today to try and comply with a new law that mandates all artificial intelligence content is clearly labeled as such. The new content labeling rules mandate that all AI-generated content posted on social media is tagged with explicit markings visible to users. It applies to AI-generated text, images, videos and audio, and also requires that implicit identifiers, such as digital watermarks, are embedded in the content's metadata. The law, which was first announced in March by the Cyberspace Administration of China, reflects Beijing's increased scrutiny of AI at a time when concerns are rising about misinformation, online fraud and copyright infringement. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, the law comes amid a broader push by Chinese authorities to increase oversight of AI, as illustrated by the CAC's 2025 Qinglang campaign, which aims to clean up the Chinese language internet. WeChat, one of the most popular messaging platforms in China, which boasts more than 1.4 billion monthly active users globally, has said that all creators using its platform must voluntarily declare any AI-generated content they publish. It's also reminding users to "exercise their own judgement" for any content that has not been flagged as AI generated. In a post on Monday, WeChat said it "strictly prohibits" any attempts to delete, tamper with, forge or conceal AI labels added by its own automated tools, which are designed to pick up any AI-generated content that's not flagged by users who upload it. It also reminded users against using AI to spread false information or for any other "illegal activities." Meanwhile Douyin, which has around 766 million monthly active users, said in a post on Monday that it's encouraging users to add clear labels to every AI-generated video they upload to its platform. It will also attempt to flag AI-generated content that isn't flagged by users by checking its source via its metadata. Several other popular social media platforms made similar announcements. For instance, the microblogging site Weibo, often known as China's Twitter, said on Friday it's adding tools for users to tag their own content, as well as a button for users to report "unlabeled AI content" posted by others. RedNote, the e-commerce-based social media platform, issued its own statement on Friday, saying that it reserves the right to add explicit and implicit identifiers to any unidentified AI-generated content it detects on its platform. Many of China's best known AI tools are also moving to comply with the new law. For instance, Tencent's AI chatbot Yuanbao said on Sunday it has created a new labeling system for any content it generates on behalf of users, adding explicit and implicit tags to text, videos and images. In its statement, it also advised users that they should not attempt to remove the labels it automatically adds to the content it creates. When the CAC announced the law earlier this year, it said its main objectives were to implement robust AI content monitoring, enforce mandatory labeling and apply penalties to anyone who disseminates misinformation through AI or uses the technology to manipulate public opinion. It also pledged to crack down on deceptive marketing that uses AI, and strengthen online protections for underage users. The European Union is set to implement its own AI content labeling requirements in August 2026, as part of the EU AI Act, which mandates that any content "significantly generated" by AI must be labeled to ensure transparency. The U.S. has not yet mandated AI content labels, but a number of social media platforms, such as Meta Platforms Inc., are implementing their own policies regarding the tagging of AI-generated media.