On 12 June 2025, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released six typical cases involving the use of the internet and information technology to infringe upon personality rights, highlighting the judicial practice of courts in protecting personality rights.
These cases address issues such as facial identity theft, AI voice cloning, and cyberbullying, reflecting courts’ responses to torts related to emerging technologies.
Among them, two cases involve the abuse of AI technology. In one case, a dubbing company used AI to replicate Yin’s voice for profit without permission, and the court found the company liable for infringing upon Yin’s personality rights. In another case, a software company developed a “face-swapping” app using Peng’s portrait, and the court held that this constituted infringement of portrait rights.
Two other cases demonstrate the severe punishment of cyberbullying and data crimes. In Case No.4, Meng and Gao publicly disclosed Chen’s personal information through fan accounts and incited cyberbullying against Chen, damaging his reputation. The court found them guilty of infringing upon reputation rights and ordered them to delete the information, apologize, and compensate for losses. In Case No.5, Xu and Li were convicted of the crime of infringing on citizens’ personal information by illegally buying and selling more than 130 sets of citizen data containing facial information for profit, and were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment with fines respectively.