Nio said on Friday that Chinese police have identified a suspect who used AI-powered article spinning to fabricate and spread false information about the company and others.
According to a post on Nio‘s Legal-dedicated Weibo account, the suspect operated more than 4,000 social media accounts to publish what the company described as false and negative content about its business operations, aiming to generate traffic and illicit profits.
The content has accumulated over 80 million views, the EV maker stated.
Police have taken criminal coercive measures against the suspect, Nio said, adding that it will continue to follow the case and file civil lawsuits against those responsible to recover its economic losses.
Industry Crackdown
The cases are part of a broader crackdown on illegal profit-seeking, exaggerated advertising, and malicious defamation targeting automakers in China.
The campaign was launched last summer by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and five other agencies.
In September, Nio founder and CEO William Li called for tougher measures against organized online attacks that he said are damaging China’s automotive industry.
Between 2022 and 2024, a wide range of Chinese carmakers have opened Legal dedicated social media accounts to update the community on each court case.
Companies such as Nio, XPeng, BYD, Li Auto, Zeekr, among others, have offered bounties of up to 5 million yuan for evidence identifying those responsible for coordinated disinformation campaigns on social media.
Civil Cases
Nio also disclosed the outcomes of several defamation lawsuits it has pursued against individual content creators.
A first-instance court ruled that Qiu Canhui, Wang Fang, and others — operators of the account “Baolijie New Energy” (‘宝利捷新能源’) — used a network of accounts to mass-produce defamatory content about Nio on platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat Channels, and Xiaohongshu.
The court ordered compensation and a public apology.
An Jianchao, operator of the account “Stock Market Reflections” (‘股海闲思录’) was also found liable in a first-instance ruling for repeatedly publishing unverified claims defaming the Nio brand.
Nio said the content was shared more than one million times.
The court ordered compensation and a public apology.
Appeals
Two other cases have reached final rulings after appeals.
Lin Guirong, operator of the account “Auto Exposure Platform” (‘汽车曝光台’) had published unverified accident-related videos targeting Nio and other new energy vehicle brands across multiple platforms, according to the ruling.
Lin appealed a first-instance loss, but the second-instance court upheld the original judgment — ordering compensation and a public apology.
Su Chuyuan, operator of the account “Electric Car Talk” (‘电动汽车叨逼叨’), has used accounts on several Chinese platforms since 2023 to publish content that Nio described as malicious misinterpretations of its financial reports and attacks on its operations.
The court had first determined late last year that Su compensated the company and issued a public apology.
The owner also appealed the decision — and lost, with the court upholding the original ruling.
Xiaomi Case
As part of this industry-wide crackdown, Chinese media outlet AutoReport, affiliated with Yiche — one of the country’s largest automotive information websites — was ordered to pay tech giant Xiaomi 5 million yuan ($731,000) in defamation damages.
William Li — founder and CEO of Nio — also founded Yiche in 2000, fourteen years before establishing the Shanghai-based EV maker.
Following rumours of his involvement with the outlet, Nio denied that its Chief Executive retained any connection to the auto media company.
Nio‘s Assistant VP for Branding and Communications Ma Lin told local media outlet Yicai that Li sold his entire stake in the company operating the self-media account AutoReport in 2020.
Read Monday’s statement from the Nio Legal Department below:
“Suspect Controlled Over 4,000 Accounts to Smear Nio; Criminal Coercive Measures Taken
Recently, we learned from public security authorities that police have successfully cracked a case involving the use of AI-assisted “content rewriting” to fabricate and spread rumors.
The suspect operated more than 4,000 social media accounts to continuously publish false and negative information about the business operations of companies such as Nio, in order to gain traffic and illicit profits.
The related content accumulated over 80 million views. At present, the police have taken criminal coercive measures against the suspect in accordance with the law.
Nio will continue to follow the case’s progress and will file civil lawsuits against the responsible parties to recover economic losses.
The holders of the online account “Baolijie New Energy,” Qiu Canhui, Wang Fang, and others, operated a network of accounts to mass-produce and continuously publish defamatory content about Nio across platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, WeChat Channels, and Xiaohongshu, seriously infringing upon Nio‘s reputation rights.
A first-instance court has determined that the account holders committed infringement and ordered them to compensate Nio for its losses and issue a public apology.
The holder of the account “Stock Market Reflections,” An Jianchao, repeatedly published rumors defaming the Nio brand without verifying their authenticity.
The related content was widely shared and disseminated over one million times, causing extremely negative social impact.
The court has issued a first-instance judgment, ruling that An’s actions constituted infringement and ordering compensation and a public apology.
The holder of the account “Auto Exposure Platform,” Lin Guirong, long engaged in smearing the new energy vehicle industry, including Nio, by continuously publishing unverified accident-related videos across multiple platforms, causing severe damage to Nio‘s brand.
After losing in the first instance, Lin appealed, but the second-instance court issued a final ruling upholding the original judgment, ordering compensation and a public apology.
The holder of the account “Electric Car Talk,” Su Chuyuan, since 2023, used a network of accounts across platforms such as Douyin, Xigua Video, Toutiao, Bilibili, Dongchedi, WeChat Channels, and Xiaohongshu to continuously and maliciously misinterpret Nio‘s financial reports and attack its business operations.
After losing in the first instance, Su appealed, but the second-instance court upheld the original ruling, ordering compensation and a public apology.
Nio will continue to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the company and its users through legal means and will provide updates on rights protection efforts in due course.
The 2026 models of Nio ES6, EC6, ET5, and ET5T were officially launched on April 2. The product technology launch event for the flagship SUV Nio ES9 will be held on April 9.
The 2026 model of Onvo L90 will be released on April 21, and the Onvo L80 will also launch in mid-May. Stay tuned.
Nio Legal Department
April 3, 2026″
