YouTube, TikTok: Stricter Rules for AI

Social Platforms Adapt Their Policies in Response to AI

Companies managing social platforms are revising their guidelines regarding content generated by artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on revenue-generating accounts. The use of AI in content creation has long been a topic of debate among creators. Here’s how different platforms are addressing this issue, especially concerning monetization.

As tech giants increasingly integrate AI into their products, they face the challenge of finding a balance between technological innovation and the proliferation of low-quality machine-generated content. The new guidelines reflect a growing tension in the creator economy. In the past, social platforms competed for creators by offering funds, exclusive programs, and monetization tools. Today, these same companies are heavily investing in AI, raising concerns among some creators about their future roles on these platforms.

YouTube

YouTube has decided to strengthen its stance on AI-generated content. On July 20, YouTube's Trust and Safety team announced that it wants to reward creators who use AI to enhance their original storytelling, rather than those who produce generic content or AI characters designed to circumvent platform rules.

A YouTube spokesperson clarified to Business Insider that this policy is not new but aims to clarify an existing directive on inauthentic content. This clarification seeks to reduce ambiguity for creators whose videos have been demonetized due to their repetitive, poorly crafted, or manipulative nature.

YouTube has long positioned itself as the future of television to advertisers, and an increase in AI-generated spam could jeopardize this positioning. In January, the platform removed more than a dozen popular channels that had amassed millions of views by broadcasting AI-generated videos featuring characters like cats and Jesus. According to a report from the video editing platform Kapwing, about 21% of YouTube's news feed consists of AI-generated videos.

TikTok

TikTok, for its part, is not shying away from generative AI. The company, along with its parent company ByteDance, offers various AI tools for creators on its main app and the video editor CapCut. Creators using TikTok Shop, the e-commerce platform, have ramped up their use of AI to promote their products this year. Much of TikTok's technology relies on ByteDance's AI video model, Seedance 2.0.

However, TikTok has implemented several measures to regulate the use of AI within its ecosystem. The company requires creators to identify AI-generated content and adds an invisible watermark to the metadata of certain videos to signal their artificial origin. In November, TikTok introduced a feature allowing users to control the amount of AI-generated content in their news feed. In July, the company announced it was testing enhanced detection systems to target accounts spreading AI-generated spam that eclipses original creators.

Substack

The newsletter platform Substack announced on July 21 that it would help readers identify AI-generated content. Substack now allows readers to scan content to estimate the use of AI in its writing. To achieve this, Substack has partnered with Pangram, an AI detection tool, to enhance its identification capabilities.

Creators on Substack can also add a note to their content explaining the use of AI, for instance, specifying that they used Claude for text revision or indicating that they do not use AI. However, users can disable this tool for their content by turning off AI analysis in the publishing settings. Creators can choose not to participate in Pangram's automated scanning, meaning readers will not see an estimate of AI usage on those posts.

Pinterest

Pinterest is familiar with AI-generated content. Since 2025, the platform has begun adding AI labels to content. Pinterest allows creators to indicate whether the content has been modified or generated by AI and has its own detection systems to flag potentially AI-generated content.

Pinterest has also introduced a tool that allows users to limit the amount of AI-generated content in their news feed. In June, Pinterest CEO Bill Ready stated at the Cannes Lions event that while there are many positive uses of AI, there is also some resistance from consumers.

A Pinterest spokesperson told Business Insider: "We provide users with controls to decide whether they want to see more or less GenAI content in their feed." Additionally, Pinterest's community guidelines apply to GenAI content, and their recommendation system favors high-quality content, whether created by humans or GenAI.

Meta

Meta encourages users to create and engage with content made using its own AI tools. Thus, it has allowed content like the famous Shrimp Jesus to circulate freely. However, since 2024, the company has been labeling content as AI-generated. On Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, Meta adds an "AI information" label to content detected as AI-generated, although it does not do so automatically for content modified with AI.

Meta "may require" its AI labels to be applied to content with photorealistic videos or realistic audio created, modified, or digitally altered, including with AI, according to the company's help page explaining its AI policies. Users can also voluntarily add this label to their content.

In June, Meta began applying its "AI information" label to ads using AI, whether created by Meta's own tools or by third-party editing services.