AI-Generated Deepfakes and Web Scraping in E-Commerce Platforms
Chinese e-commerce merchants reportedly used AI deepfakes to graft celebrity faces onto broadcasters and created false promotional scenarios during November 2025's Double Eleven shopping period, while also using web scrapers to harvest competitor data. Consumers reported high costs and difficulty proving the deceptive practices, prompting regulatory guidance on transparency and dispute resolution.
What happened
Following the Double Eleven shopping festival in November 2025, Chinese consumers reported various AI-enabled deceptive practices by merchants on e-commerce platforms. Merchants used AI technology to graft the faces of celebrities and experts onto ordinary broadcasters, making minor facial alterations to attempt to evade copyright infringement claims, while making false product efficacy claims.
Merchants also created false scenarios using AI to fabricate narratives such as 'struggling farmers receiving help' to deceive consumers into purchases. Additionally, some companies used web crawlers to scrape product data from competitors' websites.
Reported impact
Consumers reported difficulty understanding the deceptive tactics, with some stating they preferred shopping at physical stores rather than deal with online complexity. The practices undermined trust in e-commerce platforms and created challenges for legitimate market competition.
Index analysis
Enforcement authorities face technical barriers in identifying and proving violations, particularly extracting evidence of illegal backend code. Consumer complaints increased about difficulty gathering evidence against AI-enabled fraud, with high costs and barriers to pursuing claims.
Governance controls
The State Administration for Market Regulation issued compliance guidance to major e-commerce platforms regarding the Double Eleven promotional period, requiring transparency in promotional activities and stricter regulation of live-streaming marketing conduct. The guidance addressed requirements to enhance promotional activity transparency and strictly regulate direct marketing behavior.
Authorities acknowledged the need for simplified consumer complaint procedures, promotion of online dispute resolution mechanisms, and exploration of burden-shifting for evidence in AI-related fraud cases to reduce consumer costs in pursuing claims.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.