BYD is taking legal action against dozens of multi-channel network (MCN) agencies it accuses of coordinating online attacks using AI-generated articles. The automaker also said Chinese police had placed three people under administrative detention in separate cases involving false information and defamatory posts about the company.
In a November 13 statement, BYD’s legal department said it had preserved evidence from accounts linked to the agencies and disclosed civil court rulings against four online accounts.
BYD accuses MCNs of coordinating AI-generated content
BYD said dozens of MCN agencies were linked to accounts publishing large volumes of similarly worded articles about the company. MCNs manage online creators and accounts, often coordinating content production and distribution.
The automaker said some accounts used generative AI to produce articles with similar headlines and structures. It also accused them of spreading rumours while presenting the posts as attempts to debunk those claims, potentially giving misleading information wider exposure.
The agencies were identified only by partially redacted names. BYD said it was pursuing legal action, but its notice did not disclose their full names or cite any court judgments against them.
Three people placed under administrative detention
According to BYD, two people, identified only by the surnames Feng and Ji, were detained after allegedly fabricating false information about the automaker and posting it on social media. Police determined that their actions disrupted public order, the company said.
A third person, identified as Jiang, was detained over repeated insulting and defamatory posts about BYD on Douyin.
Administrative detention is a police-imposed penalty, not a criminal conviction.
BYD also said four partially anonymised online accounts, identified in the notice by labels translated as “Entertainment”, “Auto World”, “Four Five” and “Driver”, had been found liable for infringement in civil proceedings. The courts ordered the relevant parties to issue public apologies and compensate the automaker.
Earlier lawsuits and BYD’s whistleblower programme
The announcement follows earlier legal action against automotive bloggers and online accounts. In May 2026, BYD topped a Chinese automaker lawsuit leaderboard, with disclosed blogger-related claims and court-ordered compensation totalling 6,926,300 yuan (approximately 1.02 million USD).
In a separate case, an appellate ruling ordered the operator of the account Long Ge Jiang Dian Che to pay BYD 2 million yuan (approximately 294,118 USD) over claims concerning the automaker’s batteries and electric motors.
Alongside its litigation, BYD continues to operate a standing whistleblower programme offering rewards of 50,000 to 5 million yuan (approximately 7,000 to 700,000 USD) for information about online defamation. The programme predates the November announcement and was made permanent in 2023, as we previously reported.
