Hollywood Declares War on ByteDance Over Seedance 2.0 AI Video Model

Hollywood Takes Aim at ByteDance's Seedance 2.0

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, is facing a fierce backlash from Hollywood after launching Seedance 2.0, an AI video generation model that has been used to create viral deepfake content featuring copyrighted characters and celebrity likenesses.

The Motion Picture Association issued a sharp rebuke on Thursday, with chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin stating that Seedance 2.0 had engaged in "unauthorised use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale" within a single day of its launch. Rivkin called on ByteDance to "immediately cease its infringing activity."

Viral Deepfakes Spark Outrage

Seedance 2.0 launched on 10 February through ByteDance's Jimeng AI platform, offering users the ability to generate cinematic-quality video clips from text prompts, images, audio, and video inputs. The tool quickly went viral, with users producing content featuring characters from Disney, Warner Bros Discovery, and Paramount properties.

Among the most widely shared clips were a deepfake fight between Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt on a rooftop, remixes of Avengers Endgame, an encounter between Optimus Prime and Godzilla, and a scene from Friends reimagining Rachel and Joey as otters. On Weibo, related hashtags accumulated tens of millions of views.

Disney Sends Cease-and-Desist

Disney escalated the confrontation by sending ByteDance a formal cease-and-desist letter, accusing the company of pre-packaging Seedance with "a pirated library of Disney's copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises." The letter cited specific examples including Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Grogu, and Peter Griffin.

SAG-AFTRA Joins the Fight

The actors' union SAG-AFTRA condemned the "blatant infringement" enabled by Seedance, highlighting the unauthorised use of members' voices and likenesses. SAG-AFTRA president Sean Astin found his own likeness used in generated videos depicting him as Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings.

Echoes of Sora Controversy

The situation mirrors the backlash OpenAI faced when it launched Sora 2 in October 2025. Following similar pressure from the MPA, OpenAI implemented safeguards and Disney eventually reached a licensing agreement allowing two hundred characters to be used on the platform. Whether ByteDance will pursue a similar arrangement remains uncertain, particularly given the geopolitical complexities involved.