11 Chinese firms summoned for talks on monitoring deepfake tech

BEIJING • Chinese regulators recently summoned 11 domestic technology companies, including Alibaba Group, Tencent and ByteDance, for talks on monitoring the use of deepfake technologies on their content platforms, stepping up scrutiny of the sector.

China's cyberspace administrator said in a statement yesterday that it and the Public Security Ministry met the companies to talk about "security assessments" and potential problems with deepfakes and audio social apps.

Kuaishou Technology and Xiaomi were also at the meeting, it said.

Deepfakes use artificial intelligence to create hyper-realistic but fake videos or audios where a person appears to say or do something they did not.

Regulators also told the companies to "conduct security assessments on their own" and submit reports to the government when they plan to add new functions or new information services that "have the ability to mobilise society", the statement said.

There has been a surge in China in copycats of the audio app Clubhouse since it was blocked in China early last month.

Clubhouse was briefly accessible in China, attracting many users who participated in discussions on sensitive topics such as the Xinjiang detention camps and Hong Kong independence before it was shut down by the authorities.

TikTok owner ByteDance is one of many companies working on Clubhouse-like apps for the Chinese market, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Other new offerings include Kuaishou's invitation-based Feichuan app and Xiaomi's reworking of its MiTalk app into an invitation-only audio service targeted at professionals.

REUTERS