By the end of September 2026, Sony Music had requested the removal of more than 260,000 AI-generated tracks impersonating its artists—nearly twice the more than 135,000 requests reported in March 2026. These are requests, not a verified count of tracks that platforms removed.
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- Growth and targets: Sony reported getting more than 75,000 such deepfakes removed by March 2025, then reported more than 135,000 removal requests by March 2026. The available evidence does not establish a comparable 2023 count. Reported targets include Harry Styles, Adele, Britney Spears and Michael Jackson.
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- What platforms did: The March 2025 figure describes removals Sony said it secured, but the September 2026 figure describes requests. There is insufficient evidence here to say how many of the more than 260,000 tracks were actually removed, by which platforms, or how many remained available.
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- Wider response: Sony frames the impersonations as part of a streaming-fraud problem, but the available evidence does not establish how much fraud these particular tracks generated. It also does not sufficiently document the specific industry initiatives, platform-policy changes, or provisions and legislative status of the proposed US NO FAKES Act needed to describe their role in Sony’s response with confidence.
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