TikTok and Meta AI avatars used without adequate consent or moderation
TikTok created AI avatars of actors with limited disclosure and compensation, then deployed them to advertise products the actors had not explicitly authorized. Meta simultaneously allowed users to create AI chatbots of celebrities without permission, despite policies prohibiting such avatars, leading some public figures to seek legal protection.
What happened
TikTok created AI avatars based on actors' likenesses without adequate disclosure of how the avatars would be used. Actor Scott Jacqmein was paid $750 and a trip to the Bay Area to license his likeness, believing the avatar would be used for one year of advertising on TikTok, but his avatar later appeared in ads for insurance, horoscope apps, and brain teasers, including one where the avatar spoke Spanish, a language Jacqmein does not speak.
Meta's Instagram platform is selectively allowing users to create AI avatar chatbots of living and deceased public figures without permission, despite Meta's stated policy prohibiting such avatars. AI avatars have been created of Indian public figures including the late Sushant Singh Rajput, Rashmika Mandanna, Ileana D'Cruz, and Vijay Joseph, as well as international figures such as Ariana Grande, Nicki Minaj, and Emma Watson.
Reported impact
Jacqmein and other actors report regret and loss of control over their images. Some performers received less than $1,000 for their likenesses and were not informed that avatars could be used on other ByteDance platforms beyond TikTok.
Celebrity AI avatars on Meta platforms risk spreading misinformation, altering public perception, and damaging reputations. Notable Indian figures including Anil Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Rajat Sharma, Arijit Singh, and Mohan Babu have sought court orders to protect their identities from AI-generated misuse.
Index analysis
TikTok's approach to avatar creation involved minimal compensation and insufficient disclosure of intended uses, creating a mismatch between what creators understood they were authorizing and how their likenesses were deployed.
Meta's inconsistent moderation of AI avatars—permitting some celebrity personas while labeling others as parody—indicates a lack of clear enforcement of its own stated policies protecting public figures' personality rights.
Governance controls
TikTok worked with an outside agency to gather footage for avatars, but the company did not disclose to participants the full scope of platforms on which avatars could appear or the range of products they could advertise.
Meta has published a policy explicitly prohibiting creation of AI avatars of living or deceased persons, but the company has taken no documented action against celebrity AI personas that violate this policy.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.