China's Measures for Labelling AI Generated Synthetic Content

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Record ID

CPS-2026-0021

Kind

Binding law

Jurisdiction

China

Last verified

15 September 2026

Added

15 September 2026

• Article 5 requires service providers to add an implicit label in the file metadata of generated synthetic content, carrying attribute information, the provider's name or code and a content number.
• The same article defines file metadata as descriptive information embedded in the file header recording source, attributes and purpose, and encourages digital watermarks as a further implicit label.
• Article 4 sets out explicit labels: visible or audible prompts at the start, end or an appropriate point of text, audio, image, video and virtual scenes.
• Article 6 requires a distribution platform to verify whether the metadata carries an implicit label, and to add a prominent notice where it does, where the user declares it, or where it detects traces of generation.
• Article 10 forbids any organisation or individual from maliciously deleting, altering, forging or concealing a label, or supplying tools to do so.
• Article 11 requires labelling activity to also comply with mandatory national standards, and Article 14 sets entry into force on 1 September 2025.

Embeds a mark or manifest, Displays or verifies, What it requires. Stated means the document you can open below says it; silent means the ledger read the document and it does not.

Embeds a mark or manifestStated

An implicit label in the file metadata, naming the provider and a content number, with watermarks encouraged.Measures for Labelling AI Generated Synthetic Content, Cyberspace Administration of China, primary source, 14 March 2025.

Displays or verifiesStated

Distribution platforms must add a prominent visible notice around the published content, in three graded forms.Measures for Labelling AI Generated Synthetic Content, Cyberspace Administration of China, primary source, 14 March 2025.

What it requiresStated

Explicit and implicit labels from providers, verification and notice from platforms, and a prohibition on removing or forging labels.Measures for Labelling AI Generated Synthetic Content, Cyberspace Administration of China, primary source, 14 March 2025.

If you distribute into China, the duty is not only to label your own output but to inspect what others upload. Article 6 sets three tiers, a confirmed label, a user declaration and a suspicion, each with its own notice, which is the most detailed answer any regulator has given to the question of what a platform should do with a file it cannot fully verify. It is worth reading even if you never operate there.

1. Measures for Labelling AI Generated Synthetic Content, Cyberspace Administration of ChinaPrimary · 14 March 2025

• VerifiedBinding lawCPS-2026-0018

  EU AI Act Article 50(2): machine readable marking

  European Union · verified 15 September 2026

  The text reads that providers "shall ensure that the outputs of the AI system are marked in a machine-readable format and detectable as artificially generated or manipulated".

• VerifiedBinding lawCPS-2026-0020

  The California AI Transparency Act, SB 942 as amended by AB 853

  United States · verified 15 September 2026

  SB 942 requires a covered provider to include a latent disclosure conveying the provider's name, the system name and version, the time and date of creation or alteration, and a unique identifier.

• Reported, primary not reachedBinding lawCPS-2026-0022

  South Korea's AI Basic Act and its labelling duty

  South Korea · verified 15 September 2026

  The United States Department of Commerce reports that the Act and its Enforcement Decree "took effect on January 22, 2026", combining industrial promotion with baseline obligations for trust, safety, transparency and user protection.