China has penalized a batch of online accounts that used artificial intelligence to mimic public figures' likenesses in livestreams and short videos that amounted to misleading marketing content, the country's top cyberspace regulator said Friday.

In a statement, the Cyberspace Administration of China said the accounts were suspected of false promotion and online infringement, "seriously undermining the online ecosystem and causing negative impacts".

The administration said it has also pressed online platforms to conduct focused crackdown campaigns, and that more than 11,000 impersonation accounts have been punished so far.

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The regulator said it will continue to hold platforms accountable and maintain a "tough, sustained enforcement stance" against AI-enabled impersonation used for livestream sales.

Last week, an AI-generated deepfake of Chinese actress Wen Zhengrong's face and voice, which was used by unscrupulous merchants to impersonate her in livestream sales, quickly ignited online discussion in China.

The discovery was made when Wen appeared to simultaneously host three different early morning livestream rooms on social media, wearing different outfits and promoting different products. The Wen "clones" looked and sounded strikingly similar to Wen herself.