Ecosystem Analyst Graduate - TikTok LIVE

Can you own your voice? Japanese anime star Kenjiro Tsuda takes TikTok to court over AI clone. The disputed TikTok account allegedly posted more than 180 videos using a voice Kenjiro Tsuda says was artificially generated to resemble his own. - AFP pic * Japanese anime voice actor Kenjiro Tsuda has filed a lawsuit against TikTok, claiming that videos on the platform feature AI-generated imitations of his distinctive baritone voice. * Tsuda seeks the removal of these videos, asserting they infringe on his publicity rights. * The case underscores the growing issue of AI voice cloning, a concern echoed by the Japan Actors Union and an ongoing campaign against unauthorized AI imitations of performers. * The verdict may have significant implications internationally, highlighting the need for legal frameworks to protect vocal identities. First Published: Monday, 28 Sep 2026 7:00 AM MYT TOKYO, Sept 28 - A high-profile Japanese anime voice actor has taken TikTok to court over videos he says feature an artificial intelligence clone of his "lustrous" baritone, with a verdict due on Wednesday. AI imitation is a growing concern among performers worldwide, and the threat has roiled Japan's storied animation industry, whose voice actors are sometimes worshipped as much as their characters by fans. The lawsuit filed by Kenjiro Tsuda, known for his starring roles in mega-franchises including Jujutsu Kaisen and Yu-Gi-Oh!, is believed to be the country's first seeking to defend an individual's vocal identity against AI-generated copies. Tsuda is demanding TikTok remove a slew of videos narrated by a distinctively "deep" and "lustrous" voice that the 55-year-old says can only be his. The platform however argues it is a "generic male voice" whose perceived similarity to Tsuda's is subjective at best, according to court records accessed by AFP. An actor's voice "is the result of years of rigorous training and apprenticeship" to hone talent, Yuko Sasaki, executive director of the Japan Actors Union, told AFP. "It's something we spend lots of time and money perfecting," said Sasaki, a fellow voice actor, adding that "we support Tsuda wholeheartedly". The court should "acknowledge that ownership of a voice is a fundamental right", she said. An anonymous account, whose picture resembled a Jujutsu Kaisen character dubbed by Tsuda, posted the videos in question. They combined images and seemingly AI-generated speech about urban legends, occult phenomena and conspiracy theories. The account at one point boasted more than 200,000 subscribers and would have brought in upwards of ¥500,000 (RM13,000) in monthly revenue, the legal complaint argued. 'Sordid content' The account, whose posts mostly lacked original substance, "only gained popularity because its dubious, sordid content was narrated by the attractive voice of a popular actor," Tsuda's legal team said, according to the court records. This infringes Tsuda's so-called publicity rights - the ability to control and profit from the use of aspects of one's identity - his attorneys said. Although the account itself is no longer viewable on the platform, the Tokyo District Court will rule on whether TikTok was responsible for deleting the posts. Parallel to the lawsuit, Sasaki and other Japanese voice actors have launched a campaign, called "No More", against using generative AI to mimic performers without permission. "Our industry can be crushed" if a court win for TikTok triggers "unbridled" AI voice cloning on social media, actor Bin Shimada told AFP. That could cause younger actors to "lose hope", said Shimada, who is part of the campaign group. It is also fast becoming a global issue. "In many countries copyright and data protection laws are not being adequately adapted" to protect performers from AI clones, the International Federation of Actors said last year. ChatGPT maker OpenAI was forced to apologise in 2024 to star Scarlett Johansson over a synthetic voice that sounded like her, released after she declined to work with OpenAI on the project. International interest While no law explicitly enshrines a person's voice in Japan, the justice ministry published legally non-binding guidelines last month clarifying its protection under existing rights. As "the symbol of one's personality" voice is subject to "publicity rights" and "rights to prevent unauthorised use of one's portrait and likeness", the ministry said. But it remains to be seen whether and how the guidelines will influence Wednesday's court decision on Tsuda's case. TikTok has questioned the actor's "national fame", rejecting his accusations that the account was free-riding on a well-known brand in a violation of Japan's unfair competition prevention laws. As a platform, all it did was "host a forum where users could post creative and ingenious content within the scope of free speech," it told the court. It is "very unlikely" that Tsuda's voice will be outright denied publicity rights, Tatsuhiro Ueno, a professor of intellectual property studies at Waseda University, told AFP. Given the actor's Jujutsu Kaisen role as a stoic, elite sorcerer that made his voice "highly recognisable in Europe", Ueno believes the verdict "will garner a lot of international interest". Veteran voice actor Michihiro Ikemizu, 83, also expressed solidarity with Tsuda - but said that AI, however sophisticated it gets, will never outperform human actors. "You need to constantly feel and adapt while performing your role. That's something AI can never do," Ikemizu told AFP. "That's our only weapon." - AFP

TikTok agrees to pay at least $100 million to settle Alabama lawsuit. TikTok has agreed to pay at least $100 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Alabama, putting the spotlight on how a large social platform designs its services for younger users and how state governments are increasingly using litigation to challenge platform practices. What the settlement covers. The agreement is focused on claims brought by Alabama over TikTok's treatment of minors and the platform's handling of safety-related issues. A settlement ends the particular dispute without requiring the court to decide every contested allegation after a full trial. For TikTok, the payment is also part of a wider pattern in which social platforms are facing legal pressure from state governments over age verification, recommendation systems, data practices and the effect of platform design on younger users. The size of the payment makes the case commercially significant, but the more lasting impact may come from the commitments and scrutiny that accompany the settlement. Large platforms increasingly have to account for how their products work in practice, not only what their written policies say. Why age assurance is technically difficult. Most large social networks set minimum age requirements, but verifying age online is not a simple problem. A platform can ask users to enter a birth date, but that does not prove the information is correct. Stronger verification methods can require additional data, identity documents, facial analysis or third-party services, each of which introduces privacy and usability concerns. Platforms therefore balance several competing requirements. They need to keep underage users out, avoid collecting unnecessary sensitive information and prevent adults from being incorrectly blocked. The technical system also has to handle users who deliberately attempt to bypass it. You Might Be Interested In Recommendation systems make the problem harder. Even when an account's age is known, the platform has to decide what content and features are appropriate for different age groups. Safety controls are not just an account-registration feature; they affect the recommendation engine, advertising system and messaging tools. The regulatory environment is moving. The Alabama case is part of a broader shift in which states are testing their own approaches to online safety. Instead of waiting for a single national rule, individual governments are bringing cases that can produce different obligations in different jurisdictions. That creates a difficult engineering problem for global platforms. A service may need one set of age controls for one state and another for a different country. The more jurisdictions impose different requirements, the more the platform has to encode legal rules into software and operational processes. The result is likely to be greater investment in age assurance, parental controls and youth-specific experiences. It also means platform companies will need stronger evidence showing that their controls work rather than simply documenting that the controls exist. What the settlement means for the product. For users, the most visible changes may appear as additional age checks, changes to recommendations for younger accounts or tighter controls around communication and advertising. Those changes can improve safety, but they can also create more friction for legitimate users. For developers, the deeper issue is that safety requirements are becoming part of product architecture. Identity, permissions, recommendation systems and advertising cannot be designed independently when age is a regulated attribute. TikTok's settlement therefore matters beyond the payment itself. It adds another data point to a rapidly changing environment in which social platforms are being asked to demonstrate that their safety systems operate effectively at scale. What the change means in practice. For users, the most useful way to judge this development is to look past the announcement and examine the workflow it changes. The technology matters when it removes a real bottleneck, creates a new capability or changes how an existing service is delivered. Specifications are only part of that equation. The practical impact will also depend on availability, reliability and the surrounding software. A feature that works perfectly in a demonstration can still be frustrating if it requires too many permissions, depends on a cloud service or behaves differently across devices and accounts. That is why early deployments are often more informative than launch claims. Real users expose edge cases that controlled demonstrations do not. The bigger technology trend. This development also fits into a broader shift in technology toward systems that combine software with specialized hardware, data and automation. The individual product may be new, but the direction is familiar: companies are trying to make complex computing capabilities easier to use without requiring users to understand the underlying infrastructure. That trend creates new engineering requirements. Interfaces have to become simpler while the systems underneath become more sophisticated. Security, privacy, reliability and maintenance therefore become product features rather than back-office concerns. The next stage will be determined by adoption. If people repeatedly use the capability, competitors will copy the approach and the category will mature. If usage remains limited, the technology may remain a niche experiment. The bottom line. The Alabama settlement does not by itself resolve the technical problem of keeping minors safe online. It does show how platform design, regulation and software engineering are increasingly connected. Age assurance is moving from a simple signup checkbox toward a continuous system that influences what an account can see and do. The development is still early, so some details will change as the product, service or security response matures. That is normal for fast-moving technology. The useful signal is the underlying direction: a new capability is being tested in a real environment, and the next round of evidence will come from deployment, independent testing, customer behavior and the engineering changes that follow. Cost is another practical constraint. Hardware, cloud usage, subscriptions, staff time and support all contribute to the real price of a technology. A low purchase price can still become expensive if a system consumes large amounts of cloud compute or requires frequent maintenance. Conversely, a premium product can make economic sense if it removes enough manual work or provides a capability that was previously unavailable. You Might Be Interested In