Who Is Datouzhen? China’s Draft Digital Human Rules Aim to Answer That Question
The question “is this person real?” has become unexpectedly difficult to answer on Chinese social media. Datouzhen, an online singer who started releasing covers on Douyin in late 2025, attracted 800,000 followers in two months, without ever showing his face. Netizens have debated whether he is human or AI-generated and have not received a satisfactory answer. This ambiguity is precisely what China’s new draft regulations are designed to eliminate.
China’s Cyberspace Administration (CAC) opened a public comment period in early April 2026 on a set of draft rules titled “Provisional Measures on the Administration of Human-like Interactive AI Services”. The 32-article regulation covers the creation, deployment, and governance of AI-generated “digital virtual humans”, a category that encompasses virtual influencers, AI-generated customer service representatives, deepfake avatars of real people, and interactive AI companions. The rules are expected to take effect later in 2026 after the public comment period closes.
What the Draft Rules Require
The proposed regulations establish several concrete requirements. Mandatory labeling is the most visible: all digital humans must be clearly identified as AI-generated content, removing any ambiguity for users. Consent is the second pillar: providers are prohibited from using an individual’s personal information, including likeness, voice, or behavioral data, to create a digital human without explicit permission. This provision directly addresses a widespread pattern on Chinese e-commerce platforms: the use of AI-generated deepfakes of celebrities to sell products without authorization. In November 2025, actress Wen Zhengrong became a high-profile victim when multiple livestreams used AI-generated versions of her to hawk goods.
The rules also address mental health and addiction. Providers must implement systems to detect users showing signs of self-harm or severe emotional distress and must intervene with professional assistance or supportive messaging. For minors, providers must restrict screen time and access to content. For elderly users, the regulations recommend emergency contact features to guard against AI-enabled fraud and scams. These provisions reflect a growing concern in China’s regulatory community that AI companions and virtual humans are being designed to maximize engagement in ways that can be harmful, particularly for vulnerable users.
The commercial scale of the problem the rules are addressing is significant. In June 2025, an AI clone of influencer Luo Yonghao held an online sales session that generated 55 million yuan in approximately seven hours. China’s state news agency, Xinhua, released the world’s first AI news anchor in 2018. The virtual human industry has been growing for years; what has changed is the quality and accessibility of the underlying technology, which has made it trivially easy to create convincing digital replicas of real people.
Expert Views on Enforcement and Industry Impact
Associate Professor Jiang Tianjiao at Fudan University described the draft as establishing “an explicit safety assessment system and technical requirements for privacy protection and mental health safeguards.” Adjunct Associate Professor Adam Au at the University of Hong Kong offered a more structural reading: “In a system that prizes stability, this kind of legal bundling is often the precondition for scale, especially in China.” By formalizing the industry, the rules give companies clarity on disclosure obligations and give investors a clearer picture of enforcement risks, conditions that typically precede, rather than constrain, rapid growth.
Questions remain about practical enforcement. Tech consultancy Concordia AI has noted uncertainty about whether manual intervention in high-risk situations is feasible at scale. Penalties for non-compliance have not yet been specified in the draft, and the CAC is expected to be the primary enforcement body. Despite these open questions, the draft represents the most comprehensive attempt yet by any major government to regulate the fast-expanding digital human sector, a market that spans virtual customer service, entertainment, education, and social media in China.
The Commercial Stakes and What Comes Next
The virtual human industry in China has grown from a niche entertainment category into a mainstream commercial tool. AI-generated presenters and customer service agents are now deployed by banks, e-commerce platforms, news organizations, and government agencies. The technology reduces costs, enables 24-hour availability, and allows companies to maintain a consistent brand persona without the variability of human presenters. In the livestreaming e-commerce sector, a market worth hundreds of billions of yuan annually in China, AI hosts who can run continuously without breaks or salary demands have become a significant competitive advantage.
The draft rules do not prohibit any of these commercial applications. They require disclosure, consent, and safety mechanisms — a framework that, if implemented effectively, would allow the industry to continue growing while reducing the harms associated with unauthorized identity cloning and addictive design patterns. The public comment period gives industry participants an opportunity to shape the final rules, and it is likely that the large platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, Taobao Live will engage actively with the CAC to ensure the final provisions are workable at scale. The rules also send a clear signal to companies that have been building virtual human products: the era of regulatory ambiguity is ending, and the compliance costs of operating in this space are about to become more concrete.