Sony Music Has Asked Platforms to Remove 260,000-Plus AI Fakes, Including Michael Jackson Imitations

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By Mockulus Editorial
October 13, 2026

Sony Music says it has now asked digital platforms to take down more than 260,000 AI-generated tracks that imitate its artists, and Michael Jackson is among the names on the list. The figure, reported by the Financial Times on October 5, covers requests through the end of September and is nearly double what the company disclosed six months earlier.

What Sony Reported

According to the Financial Times, as relayed by Music Business Worldwide and others, Sony had sent more than 260,000 takedown requests by the end of September, up from about 135,000 at the end of March. Music Business Worldwide calculated that works out to more than 20,000 additional requests per month between April and September. The artists named as targets of AI imitations include Harry Styles, Adele, Britney Spears, Queen and MJ.

Sony described the effort as increasingly difficult. “We will keep enforcing our artists’ rights and expect platforms to act quickly and to prevent the same content from reappearing,” the company told the paper, adding that it is “becoming an uphill struggle.”

Requests, Not Removals

It’s worth being precise about what the number measures. These are requests Sony sent to platforms, not confirmed deletions. Reports on the disclosure noted that Sony didn’t say how many of the flagged tracks were actually removed or which services received the most notices. The coverage also doesn’t break down how many of the requests involved MJ specifically, only that he was among the artists imitated.

How the Numbers Have Grown

The trend is steep. In November 2023, Sony’s Dennis Kooker told a Senate forum the company had sent close to 10,000 takedowns. By March 2025 the total had passed 75,000, and by March 2026 it reached about 135,000, according to Music Business Worldwide.

The NO FAKES Act

Sony supports the proposed NO FAKES Act, which would create a federal right in a person’s voice and visual likeness. Under the bill as described by Music Business Worldwide, platforms would need to remove a flagged digital replica “as soon as is technologically and practically feasible” to keep safe harbor protection. It is not yet law. One report says it passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously on June 18, though I could only confirm that through a single aggregator.

Separately, the U.S. Copyright Office has opened an inquiry into music streaming fraud, which is a related issue in the AI music space but isn’t tied to Sony’s figure in the reporting reviewed.

Not the Same as the Anthropic Case

This is a different dispute from the lawsuit Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell filed against Anthropic in August, which alleges that song lyrics and compositions, including MJ’s, were copied to train AI models. That case is about training data. The takedown campaign is about AI tracks that mimic artists’ voices after the fact.

Why It Matters

For MJ’s catalog, the issue is straightforward: a voice that millions know well is an obvious target for imitation, and fans can be misled by tracks that present themselves as the real thing. The reports reviewed don’t include a statement from MJ’s estate, so how it views these tracks isn’t clear. What’s documented is the scale of Sony’s takedown effort and the legislative push to give artists stronger legal footing.

Sources: Financial Times, Music Business Worldwide, CelebrityAccess, Music and Times