AI-Generated Pornography Distribution Chain Exposed in China
CCTV exposed an organized supply chain in China distributing tutorials and tools to generate pornographic deepfake videos, with sellers teaching techniques to evade content moderation. At least one woman reported receiving an explicit deepfake video made from her photograph with an extortion demand.
What happened
On April 12, 2026, CCTV's Finance Investigation programme exposed a chain distributing AI-generated pornographic content in China. Undercover reporting found tutorials priced at 9.9 yuan to 99 yuan being sold on platforms including Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Xianyu, and online shops, teaching users how to generate explicit video content from photographs using AI tools.
The supply chain involved downloadable software packages, detailed prompts (in English and codes to evade filtering), and instructions for using Stable Diffusion with local deployment to avoid detection. Sellers taught techniques to circumvent platform content moderation, including replacing sensitive terms with alternatives like 'beachside sunbathing' for nudity and 'intimate interaction' for sexual content.
A reporter tested the process: after paying 9.9 yuan, downloading a package with 37 files, and following instructions, a normal photograph of a woman was converted into an explicit half-naked dancing video within three minutes using Libu Libu AI, with no platform content filter intervention. A known AI application with 1.4 billion users was similarly bypassed to produce pornographic material.
Reported impact
A 26-year-old woman named Li reported to police on April 12, 2026 that a video with her face digitally inserted onto another woman's body had been sent to her via Douyin private message, with a demand for 5,000 yuan to delete it. She stated she did not know when such a photograph of her had been taken.
Criminal businesses operated with clear profit models: tutorials sellers reported selling over 200 copies per day with monthly earnings of 30,000 yuan; software cracking services charged 888 yuan for lifetime offline AI tool access; borderless chat software operators charged 199 yuan per month for AI virtual girlfriend accounts with unlimited use.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.