Night In The Woods Publisher Confronts TikTok Over Racist AI Ads

Finji, the company behind Night in the Woods, Tunic and the upcoming Usual June, says TikTok has been creating and posting AI-generated ads using its characters without permission. The publisher says it had been using TikTok to promote its games and had turned off the app’s genAI permissions, but a flood of social media comments alerted the company to ads that appeared to be AI-generated and to come from Finji.

IGN viewed screenshots showing an altered image of June, the protagonist of Usual June, "with a bikini bottom, impossibly large hips and thighs, and boots that rise up over her knees," a depiction that diverges from the character’s actual appearance and, given that she is a Black woman, plays into racist stereotypes.

Finji says it had no option to view or edit these AI ads. TikTok customer support initially disputed that the ads used AI and suggested Finji must have uploaded the image itself.

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