On 19 January 2025 the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a one-month campaign on the Spring Festival online environment. It targets six problem areas and expressly states that using AI tools to maliciously fabricate false imagery and Spring Festival-related social topics to mislead users falls within scope.
Six areas and where AI intersects
The campaign targets extreme antagonism, false information, vulgar content, unhealthy culture, traffic driven to illegal activity, and infringement of consumer rights. AI-related problems are not a separate category but are embedded in items such as false information.
That embedded approach reflects the regulator’s thinking: AI is treated as a new tool for fabrication and amplification, not as a category of content in itself. Whether something is a violation still turns on its actual effect, not on whether AI generated it. See our notes on self-media AI labelling and on the AI misuse reporting channel.
Why holidays are an observation window
The Spring Festival is a peak for content traffic and commercial activity, and a period when false information and marketing chaos concentrate. Running a campaign around a holiday exposes problems in a short window and makes it easier to build reusable handling experience.
For content platforms and tool providers, handling pressure usually rises markedly around holidays. Allocating moderation resources in advance and clarifying the labelling and reporting path for AI-generated content is often more effective than remedial action afterwards. See our notes on the first phase of the AI misuse campaign and on enforcement of synthetic content labelling.
From special campaign to routine governance
A campaign is time-limited, but the standards and experience it accumulates settle into routine governance. What is worth watching is that violation types that recur in a campaign tend to be consolidated in later routine requirements.
Translating the campaign’s key points into an internal content-safety checklist is a practical response to this rhythm of governance.
This article is based on the Cyberspace Administration of China’s notice on the 2025 Spring Festival online environment campaign and public information and is for reference only; it does not constitute legal advice.