Chinese officials are confronting a new challenge: dangerously misleading videos created with Artificial Intelligence (AI) that are circulating during natural disasters. This comes as China deals with the aftermath of Typhoon Noul, which made landfall over the weekend.
Over the last few months, powerful storms and flooding incidents have led to an inundation of fake videos on social media platforms. These include fabricated images of dead bodies in floodwaters, false depictions of severe flooding in unaffected areas, and misleading details about emergency response efforts. In some instances, videos containing false information about power outages prompted residents to panic buy emergency supplies.
Professor Chen Bin, from the Communist Party's Central Party School, stated that AI significantly lowers the technical barriers to producing false information, allowing individuals to rapidly generate convincing, yet entirely fabricated, content on a large scale. Professor Gao Fuping of the East China University of Political Science and Law noted that motivations for publishing such content range from seeking amusement to generating traffic for personal gain or deliberately causing panic.
In response, authorities have made arrests and issued punishments, including detention and fines, for the creation of bogus reports and video content. On 23 July, China's Cyberspace Administration announced a nationwide crackdown on fake internet content related to floods and other disasters, instructing local branches to target fabricated data, malicious editing, and impersonation of officials. Social media platforms have also been urged to strengthen content review.
Police are advising the public to be sceptical of disaster-related information from unknown sources and to rely on official announcements. Gao Kai from the Ningbo Public Security Bureau reassured the public that creators of false information would be caught, stating that a specialised task force is monitoring social media to investigate and handle these cases.