Disney Goes All In On Fighting Those Deepfake Videos You've Probably Seen

If you’ve seen the fake Tom Cruise vs. Brad Pitt deepfake AI videos circulating on social media, so has Disney…and the company is not too happy about it.

©ByteDance

The videos simulate a fake movie scene that has the two actors fighting each other. They were created with TikTok owner Bytedance’s Seedance 2.0. According to Deadline, Disney has sent Bytedance a cease and desist letter over the software’s “pirated library of Disney’s copyrighted characters.”

Disney claims that the platform is treating Disney’s intellectual property as if it were “free public domain clip art.” This includes characters from Star Wars, Marvel, Family Guy, Disney movies, and more. There has already been backlash to Seedance 2.0 from the Motion Picture Association and the Human Artistry Campaign, which includes members from SAG-AFTRA and the DGA.

Disney’s cease and desist letter wrote, “ByteDance’s virtual smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP is willful, pervasive, and totally unacceptable.”

Outrage against Seedance 2.0 started after the deepfakes of a Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fight scene went viral. Some of the deepfakes also included alternative endings to Stranger Things and other copyrighted material. Deadline reports that the Motion Picture Association also demanded that ByteDance cease its copyright-infringing activity.

Charles Rivkin, the chairman and CEO of the MPA, said in a statement, “In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorized use of U.S. copyrighted works on a massive scale. By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs. ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity.”

Meanwhile, Disney has made a deal with OpenAI that will bring Disney characters to Sora to “generate short, user-prompted social videos” that can be shared with a selection that will be streamed on Disney+.

We’ll keep an eye out for more Disney news, so check back with AllEars again soon for more.