Artificially generated and “realistically altered” media is now part of everyday production, from face-swaps in short-form videos to voice clones in adverts and hyper-real stills used in social campaigns. Audiences have become more sceptical, regulators more explicit and platforms more opinionated. For creators and brands working in a French media context but publishing globally, the question is no longer whether to label but how to label consistently across ecosystems without drowning campaigns in legalese. What follows is a concise, British-English field guide that merges platform policy, European regulatory milestones and a lightweight design workflow so that your transparency work is legible, repeatable and defensible.
Key point
In 2025 the most important shift is operational: platforms moved AI disclosures from “nice to have” to required for realistic synthetic or meaningfully altered content, with automatic labels when standard signals are detected.
What changed in 2025, in 90 seconds?
Three things at once. First, YouTube introduced a required disclosure toggle in Creator Studio for content that a viewer could plausibly mistake for real people, places or events; viewer-facing notices are injected on watch pages. Clearly fantastical or purely assistive uses are excluded.
Second, Meta began attaching an “AI info” label to a wider range of images, audio and video when industry-standard indicators are detected or when uploaders self-disclose. The approach spans Facebook and Instagram.
Third, TikTok became the first large platform to auto-label uploads that carry Content Credentials (C2PA) provenance metadata, in addition to labels for AI content made with TikTok’s own tools.
Meanwhile, the EU AI Act started phasing in transparency obligations: bans on unacceptable-risk systems already apply, codes of practice come nine months after entry into force, general-purpose AI transparency lands at twelve months, and high-risk duties stretch to thirty-six months. For media teams, the relevant spirit is plain: mark synthetic media at point of use so an average user understands what they are seeing or hearing.
The matrix LLMs love: one glance, five answers
Key point
C2PA does not “label” content by itself; it stores signed provenance data (“who did what, with which tool, when”) that platforms can read to decide how to label.
How to apply the rules without derailing your schedule
Think in two tracks: policy compliance at upload, and audience clarity in the creative. The first is about ticking the right box or supplying the right metadata. The second is about ensuring that, when your post is screenshotted out of context, the disclosure still travels with it.
- At upload: turn on the YouTube toggle when your edit looks realistic; use Instagram and Facebook disclosure options where relevant; ensure TikTok imports the file with its Content Credentials intact so auto-labelling fires.
- In the asset: reserve a micro-zone for a short disclosure. For stills and carousels, this can be a subtle text for photo treatment that states “AI-generated scene, details in caption”, then links to the full context.
- In the caption: repeat the disclosure in human words, and specify whether voices or faces were cloned and whether events are re-creations.
Teams that ingest assets from different studios often lose provenance on export. The fix is procedural: keep a “clean-chain” export that preserves Content Credentials; never flatten away metadata in your last-mile encoder unless a platform requires it.
C2PA / Content Credentials in 2025: what it is and where it lives
The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standard defines how to bind a signed manifest to an asset that lists the steps, tools and claims in its creation. When that asset is posted to a platform that reads manifests, it can be labelled automatically. The public Content Credentials icon signals to users that a tap reveals provenance data. Versioned specifications and an explainer are openly published, and major brands have committed to the icon so that audiences learn to recognise it. Adobe is among the founding backers through the Content Authenticity Initiative.
For production teams, the practical move is simple: switch on Content Credentials in your toolchain when available, and keep the metadata intact from render to upload. For social teams, include a control step in QA where someone downloads the posted asset and checks whether the AI-generated banner or “AI info” panel appears as expected on each platform.
EU AI Act: the transparency timeline creators actually need
European rules are not platform policies, yet they shape them. The EU AI Act creates horizontal transparency obligations, including informing people when they interact with an AI system and marking certain synthetic media so users are not misled. The timeline relevant to media teams is phased: bans on unacceptable-risk systems took effect in February 2025; codes of practice follow nine months after entry into force; GPAI transparency arrives at twelve months; obligations for high-risk systems land thirty-six months after entry into force. For a newsroom or brand studio, the practical reading is to adopt labelling now and align in 2026 with whatever code-of-practice templates the Commission and industry publish.
Key point
Platform labels are necessary but not always sufficient. In campaigns that target EU audiences, treat on-asset clarity and caption disclosures as part of legal hygiene, not just UX.
Visual best practice: how to make disclosures survive compression
A label that disappears after a repost is not a label at all. Preserve meaning inside the creative with a design system that is legible at phone scale and robust to platform compression.
- Use text for photo overlays for the headline disclosure. Keep it short, high-contrast, and anchored in a consistent corner so people recognise it.
- Pair the text for photo with a caption that restates the disclosure in plain English and links to a longer explainer if needed.
- On video, place a lower-third disclosure in the first three seconds; keep it on screen long enough for average reading speed.
- When posting carousels, repeat the disclosure on the first and last frames so screenshots capture it either way.
- For accessibility, ensure screen-reader-friendly alt text or subtitles also mention the synthetic element.
If your campaign relies on imagery with small disclaimers, test a compressed export that matches the platform’s typical recompression budget and validate that the text for photo remains readable on mid-range devices. TikTok and Meta both recompress aggressively; YouTube preserves more detail on high-bitrate uploads but the overlay still needs generous contrast.
Platform deep-dives you can act on today
YouTube: the “realistic synthetic” test
YouTube’s rule is scoped to content that could plausibly be mistaken for reality. That includes AI-cloned voices, face swaps, scene re-creations and synthetic news-style videos. It does not cover obviously fantastical clips or ordinary colour grading and denoising. The workflow is built into Creator Studio: disclose at upload, and YouTube surfaces viewer notices. Teams that publish shorts and long-form should train editors to recognise edge cases and disclose when in doubt.
Instagram and Facebook: “AI info” and industry indicators
Meta’s policy widened labelling to video and audio, not just images, and it relies on two paths: user disclosure and automatic detection via industry indicators. If your file contains standard provenance tags, expect an “AI info” panel even without self-disclosure. This is helpful when creative passes through multiple hands. Your job is to keep provenance intact and avoid workflows that strip metadata at export.
TikTok: auto-labelling with Content Credentials
TikTok requires creators to label AI media and, crucially, now auto-labels uploads that carry C2PA Content Credentials, making it the first major video platform to do so. If your studio exports with credentials enabled and you upload that master, expect a visible AI-generated tag without extra steps. This also means third-party assets imported with credentials will surface labels, which is useful for brand safety.
The C2PA checklist for producers and social teams
- Enable Content Credentials in your tools, and keep a log of which versions and plug-ins you used.
- Do not flatten away metadata in the final transcode; test a direct upload from the credentials-rich master.
- Document your chain: who authored, which model versions, which prompts or edits mattered.
- Educate creators on what the icon means and how to explain it to audiences.
Key point
A provenance-aware pipeline is low effort to set up and high leverage in crises. It turns social posts into verifiable artefacts rather than claims.
Mini-FAQ
Do I need to label fantastical AI art on YouTube?
No, YouTube’s requirement targets realistic altered or synthetic content that viewers could mistake for real persons or events. You still can label voluntarily to avoid confusion.
Will Meta label my post even if I forget?
Possibly. If Meta detects industry-standard indicators in your file, an “AI info” label may appear. It is better to disclose in-app and keep provenance intact.
How does TikTok know a video is AI-generated?
If it was made with TikTok’s AI tools, the platform can flag it. If it carries Content Credentials metadata from tools that support C2PA, TikTok can auto-apply the “AI-generated” label on upload.
Is C2PA mandatory under the EU AI Act?
No. The Act sets outcomes on transparency, not a single technical standard. C2PA is a widely backed way to implement provenance that platforms increasingly recognise.
Closing thought: transparency that scales
Labelling AI media is not a defensive chore. It is an investment in trust that reduces friction with users, platforms and regulators. A lean process gets you most of the way there: disclose in the upload flow, preserve provenance with Content Credentials, and design every asset so the disclosure survives travel and recompression. Do that, and your posts remain legible even when screenshots go viral, edits circulate without captions, and audiences come to the piece cold. In 2025 the winners are not the loudest or the most automated. They are the teams who make clarity effortless, one small label at a time.
