(Yicai) March 27 -- ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, is stepping up its efforts to put a stop to unethical videos featuring virtual humans on its Chinese short-video platform Douyin.

Douyin will use technologies to identify offensive videos, erase followers, and ban the accounts, the Beijing-based firm announced today.

Some of those videos include virtual characters of foreigners expressing their willingness to live in China and marry a Chinese citizen or commenting on social events. Moreover, some videos involve emotional content or love songs to trick people into chatting with the account owner and even become victims of fraud. Others share self-help or financial tips to lure viewers to pay for courses or join chat groups to make a profit.

Users are held accountable for any possible consequences of their content and they must label AI-generated content clearly, per ByteDance. The platform has gathered evidence of crimes linked to virtual humans and will report the clues to the police.

Developers of virtual humans need to sign up with their real names on the platform and register their characters too. They are not allowed to create content that constitutes fraud, violates scientific principles, or infringes on portrait or intellectual property rights.

Editor: Emmi Laine