Douyin is advancing a special campaign to clean up and rectify the chaos of fake personas in short videos, focusing on removing accounts that stage fake scenarios and fabricate personas for traffic. From October 1 to October 22, over 20,000 violating accounts were penalized, and more than 47,000 violating videos were removed.
This special campaign identifies five key targets for crackdown: impersonating vulnerable groups to gain attention, fabricating professional qualifications to publish expert content, using AI to impersonate individuals for false marketing, promoting extravagance and superstition to drive traffic and profit, and fabricating conflict-driven plots to garner views.
Many ordinary users are easily moved by such stories, willing to like, tip, and make purchases after seeing the tragic situations depicted in the videos. In reality, these are mostly complete scripts written by teams, with the sole purpose of generating traffic and driving sales. Fake personas not only exploit public goodwill, but fabricated professional content can also mislead ordinary people, leading to financial losses.
The platform stated that it will continue to monitor such irregularities and has opened a user reporting channel. Ordinary users who encounter suspected staged or fabricated content can submit reports directly. The platform also reminds creators to produce authentic content and avoid relying on fabricated stories for attention.
The platform has released several batches of typical enforcement cases:
Case 1: The account "Gui*" fabricated a social incident claiming that a "friend passed away in an electrical accident" to attract traffic. Upon platform verification, the information was found to be fabricated, and the relevant accounts and content have been handled in accordance with regulations.
Case 2: The account "Yu*" posted staged videos of rescuing homeless people to gain attention. Upon platform verification, the individuals in the videos were hired actors and not actual homeless people. The relevant accounts and content have been handled in accordance with regulations.
Case 3: A matrix of accounts used the "Xiao Hai" AI avatar to engage in pity-based sales. Upon platform verification, the characters were confirmed to be AI-generated digital humans, and the relevant accounts and content have been handled in accordance with regulations.
Case 4: The account "Ye*" posted staged videos claiming that "grandpa is still raising his granddaughter alone despite being ill" to evoke sympathy through pity-based marketing. Upon platform verification, the information was found to be fabricated, and the relevant accounts and content have been handled in accordance with regulations.