Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) have called for ByteDance to immediately cease operations of its AI video-generation tool Seedance 2.0, accusing the Chinese tech giant of enabling widespread copyright infringement and unauthorized use of personal likenesses.
In a letter first obtained by CNBC on Thursday, the bipartisan duo described Seedance 2.0 as “the most glaring example of copyright infringement from a ByteDance product to date” and urged CEO Liang Rubo to shut down the platform and implement “meaningful safeguards” to prevent further violations.
The letter cites specific examples of content generated by Seedance 2.0 since its February 12 launch, including realistic videos featuring actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, as well as characters and scenes from Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Blackburn and Welch argued that these outputs demonstrate the tool’s ability to replicate protected works and individuals without authorization, violating U.S. copyright law and right-of-publicity protections.
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“Responsible global companies follow the law and respect core economic rights, including intellectual property and personal likeness protections,” the senators wrote.
They demanded that ByteDance halt the tool’s operations and provide assurances that stronger content filters and safeguards would be implemented.
A ByteDance spokesperson told CNBC: “ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0. We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”
The Information reported that ByteDance has paused the global launch of Seedance 2.0 in response to the mounting backlash. Hollywood organizations, including the Motion Picture Association, have also sent cease-and-desist letters to ByteDance over the tool’s outputs.
The senators’ letter is another sign of growing unease on Capitol Hill about how AI companies develop and deploy generative models, particularly regarding the use of copyrighted materials in training data and the potential for unauthorized replication of protected content. While Congress has adopted a largely hands-off approach to comprehensive AI regulation — citing the need to avoid stifling U.S. innovation and competitiveness against foreign rivals — lawmakers have introduced targeted bills addressing specific risks.
In August 2025, Blackburn and Welch introduced legislation to help artists protect their copyrighted works from being used to train AI models without permission. The bill is part of a broader wave of narrower proposals focused on deepfakes, likeness rights, copyright in training data, and transparency requirements for AI-generated content.
The rapid evolution of AI tools — especially agentic systems and multimodal generators like Seedance — has outpaced much of the earlier legislative discussion. Lawmakers have acknowledged that bills drafted a few years ago would already be outdated, particularly with advances in video generation and real-time agent capabilities.
Seedance 2.0, developed by ByteDance, allows users to generate highly realistic videos featuring real people, licensed characters, and complex scenes from text prompts. The tool’s capabilities have drawn comparisons to OpenAI’s Sora and Runway Gen-3, but its accessibility and viral outputs have amplified concerns over IP infringement and misuse.
The controversy echoes earlier debates over image-generation tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, which faced lawsuits from artists and media companies over training data. Seedance 2.0’s focus on video, including celebrity likenesses and copyrighted IP, has intensified scrutiny, particularly as the technology moves closer to real-time, high-fidelity content creation.
The Motion Picture Association’s cease-and-desist letter is another episode demonstrating how alarmed Hollywood has become at the potential for AI-generated content to flood markets and undermine traditional production. Similar concerns have prompted action in other jurisdictions: the EU’s AI Act imposes strict rules on deepfakes and high-risk AI systems, while several U.S. states have passed laws targeting non-consensual deepfakes and likeness misuse.
ByteDance’s pause on the global rollout suggests the company is recalibrating in response to legal and reputational risks. However, the incident highlights a broader challenge: as generative AI tools become more powerful and accessible, the line between innovation and infringement is increasingly blurred, forcing regulators and lawmakers to balance creativity with the protection of IP rights.
The senators’ letter — while non-binding — adds political pressure at a time when ByteDance is already navigating U.S. scrutiny over TikTok’s national security implications and data practices.
However, it is not clear if the demand for a shutdown will gain broader traction. What is clear is that the challenge of developing an AI regulatory framework is far from over, especially given the rapid pace of the industry’s evolution.