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High reported severity Criminal Charges

Hangzhou: man who sold AI face-swap obscene videos, including custom swaps of private people's faces, jailed 7 years 3 months; court orders 60,000 yuan

According to Hangzhou prosecutors and courts as reported by CCTV and relayed by Xinhua in March 2024, police in Xiaoshan district opened a case in August 2022 after finding that a local man was spreading large numbers of obscene videos made with AI technology. Prosecutors said he used AI face-swap software to put faces onto obscene videos, spread them in paid social-media groups to attract customers, sold the software and tutorials, and took custom orders, swapping in the faces of public figures and of private people; one customer asked for the face of a woman he had a crush on. Victims included several well-known public figures and many unspecified private people. In a civil public-interest suit brought by prosecutors, the Hangzhou Internet Court ordered him to delete the personal information he had obtained, apologise publicly and pay 60,000 yuan for personal-information protection. In November 2023 the Xiaoshan District People's Court sentenced him to seven years and three months in prison and a 60,000-yuan fine for making and spreading obscene material for profit.

AI system
Unidentified video tool
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
21 March 2024
Event location
China
What the AI did
Depicted or impersonated the person
Reported harm
Exploitation or Abuse
Whose AI use
Someone else’s AI use
Setting
Privacy · Justice
Evidence
AI involvement supported · Causal attribution established · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
5 claims: 5 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

AI system as recorded: AI face-swap software, not named in the reports, that the man used to replace faces in obscene videos and sold to others with tutorials and face material

What Happened

The videos. According to the Xiaoshan District People's Procuratorate as reported by CCTV (relayed by the Xinhua app on 21 March 2024), the man began using AI face-swap software in 2020. Finding that selling the software drew little interest, he made obscene videos with swapped faces and spread them in social-media groups to attract followers. He charged 198, 298 or 398 yuan to join a viewing group, took custom face-swap orders priced by length and quality, such as 300 yuan for five minutes, sold the software in three tiers with tutorials, and supplied face material collected online. Customers asked for the faces of public figures and of private people; one asked for a woman he had a crush on. Prosecutors said the victims included several well-known public figures and many unspecified private people. His groups had between 95 and 2,053 members, he received more than 200 payments totalling over 60,000 yuan, and the evidence included more than 1,200 obscene videos and more than 1,600 images.

The proceedings. Xiaoshan police opened a case in August 2022 after an online patrol found AI-made obscene videos being widely spread and arrested him. Prosecutors opened a public-interest case on 14 April 2023 and filed a civil suit on 9 June 2023; the Hangzhou Internet Court heard it on 28 July 2023 and granted all claims: deletion of the personal information, a public apology and 60,000 yuan for personal-information protection. In November 2023 the Xiaoshan District People's Court sentenced him to seven years and three months and a 60,000-yuan fine.

Limits. The reports relay the procuratorate and courts through CCTV; no judgment was inspected. No individual victim is described and no count of depicted people is given. The reports describe the women depicted in the cited examples; whether any depicted person was a minor is not reported.

Reported harm

According to Hangzhou prosecutors, the man swapped the faces of public figures and of many private people into obscene videos without consent and spread and sold them; the courts imposed a prison term and ordered public-interest damages for the infringement of personal information.

Outcome

Resolved

Hangzhou Internet Court, civil public-interest suit brought by the Xiaoshan District People's Procuratorate (heard 28 July 2023): deletion of illegally obtained personal information, a public apology and 60,000 yuan for personal-information protection and governance. Xiaoshan District People's Court, November 2023: seven years and three months in prison and a 60,000-yuan fine for making and spreading obscene material for profit (Xinhua relay of CCTV, 21 March 2024).

What remains unknown

  • When the obscene face-swap videos were first made and spread; the reports give 2020 for his first use of the software and August 2022 for the police case.
  • How many people were depicted and who they were.
  • Which face-swap software was used.
  • The date of the Hangzhou Internet Court judgment.
  • Whether either judgment was appealed.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: supported. Prosecutors, an examining party, said the man used AI face-swap software to generate the obscene videos, and the courts convicted him and granted the public-interest claims on that account. The generated videos depicted the faces of public figures and private people (depicted_or_impersonated). The technical basis of the identification beyond the seized material is not described in the reports.

5 claims: 5 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported Xiaoshan police opened a case in August 2022 after an online patrol found someone in the district making obscene videos with AI technology and spreading them widely online, and arrested the man.

Causal attribution. Police and procuratorate account via CCTV.

  • app.xinhuanet.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '2022年8月，杭州市萧山警方在网上巡查中获取一条线索，辖区内有人利用AI技术制作淫秽视频在网上进行大量传播，警方依法对此立案侦查，并迅速抓获了犯罪嫌疑人'
Reported Prosecutors said he used AI face-swap software to make obscene videos, spread them in paid groups, took custom face-swap orders and sold the software with tutorials and face material.

Causal attribution. Procuratorate account.

  • app.xinhuanet.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '利用“AI换脸”软件生成大量淫秽视频进行传播'; '还将“AI换脸”软件分为初级、中级和高级三个等级进行销售并传授使用教程，同时还提供网上非法收集的他人人脸素材'
  • jinantimes.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '根据顾客的需要，还可以使用不同的女明星的形象，进行“私人定制”'
Reported Prosecutors said the victims whose faces were swapped included several well-known public figures and many unspecified private people, and that one customer asked for the face of a woman he had a crush on.

Causal attribution. Procuratorate account; no individual victim is described.

  • app.xinhuanet.com(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '被“AI换脸”侵害人脸敏感信息的受害者，不仅包括多位知名公众人物，还有很多不特定的普通人'; '其中就有人提出想要定制自己暗恋女生的换脸视频'
  • jinantimes.com.cn(opens in new tab) supports · Chinese
    '“私人定制”换脸的对象，不仅包括明星，也有生活中的普通人'
Reported The Hangzhou Internet Court granted the prosecutors' public-interest claims, ordering deletion of the personal information, a public apology and 60,000 yuan for personal-information protection.

Causal attribution. Court outcome as relayed; the judgment was not inspected.

Reported In November 2023 the Xiaoshan District People's Court sentenced him to seven years and three months in prison and a 60,000-yuan fine for making and spreading obscene material for profit.

Causal attribution. Court outcome as relayed; the judgment was not inspected.

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in the original Chinese on 2026-10-22 (HTTP 200). English renderings in this record are the research agent's (an AI's) own translations; no human translator reviewed them. Xinhua app relay of CCTV's report quoting Xiaoshan prosecutors and Hangzhou Internet Court judges; no judgment inspected. Applies to s1.

Read in the original Chinese on 2026-10-22 (HTTP 200). English renderings in this record are the research agent's (an AI's) own translations; no human translator reviewed them. New Yellow River roundup (via Jinan Times) restating the same procuratorate and court account; it also covers a separate Beijing case not used here. Applies to s2.

Event countries: China. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: China.

Xiaoshan police in Hangzhou found the videos being spread from their district and arrested the man there, and the Xiaoshan court and Hangzhou Internet Court decided the case, so the event is placed in China. Where the depicted people live is not reported.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-22: Published as a core case (depicted_or_impersonated): Hangzhou prosecutors said a man used AI face-swap software to put public figures' and private people's faces into obscene videos that he spread and sold, and he was jailed and ordered to pay public-interest damages. One reporting chain (procuratorate and courts via CCTV), read in two Chinese sources.

People described

Several well-known public figures, described in reports as female celebrities, and many unspecified private people whose faces were swapped into obscene videos without consent

People reported harmed in this case

Not reliably quantifiable from the sources

Prosecutors describe several well-known public figures and many unspecified private people as victims; no count is given. Group sizes (95 to 2,053 members), 1,200-plus videos and 1,600-plus images are audiences and material, not harmed people.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#face-swap#sexual-deepfakes#criminal-conviction#public-interest-litigation#hangzhou#china

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Hangzhou: man who sold AI face-swap obscene videos, including custom swaps of private people's faces, jailed 7 years 3 months; court orders 60,000 yuan. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2022-hangzhou-man-sold-ai-face-swap-obscene-videos-of-public-figures-and-private-people-jailed-and-ordered-to-pay-public-interest-damages

BibTeX

@misc{2022_hangzhou_man_sold_ai_face_swap_obscene_videos_of_public_figures_and_private_people_jailed_and_ordered_to_pay_public_interest_damages,
  title = {Hangzhou: man who sold AI face-swap obscene videos, including custom swaps of private people's faces, jailed 7 years 3 months; court orders 60,000 yuan},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2022-hangzhou-man-sold-ai-face-swap-obscene-videos-of-public-figures-and-private-people-jailed-and-ordered-to-pay-public-interest-damages}
}

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