China’s annual examination ‘hell’ Gaokao, ended on Tuesday with over 13 million students hoping their test scores would be good enough to get them entry into a good university. But this Gaokao was one with a difference.
Recent posts on Chinese social media platforms like Weibo featured a viral video claiming that a parent bribed officials to cover up their child’s cheating during the exam. The video was later confirmed to be a hoax, but it still sparked widespread public outrage and renewed concerns about the spread of misinformation online.
The video, which was widely circulated, featured a man in a local football team uniform claiming that his child had been caught cheating, but that he had “taken care of the issue” using money.
After the video was revealed to be a hoax by the public security authorities, many netizens remarked that it was likely an attempt to attract public attention, and asked for strict legal measures and harsher penalties for those who intentionally spread false information.
Many netizens expressed frustration over the video’s impact, stating that such incidents undermine trust in the Gaokao.
Reports of cheating at the Gaokao are not uncommon, and students have faced suspension and even prison sentences for using unfair means to take the test.
This year, Chinese firms have banned AI tools to crackdown on cheating during the exam. As reported by The Guardian, platforms like Doubao, owned by ByteDance, and even the leading AI tool DeepSeek have restricted their services during specific hours of the exam to ensure fairness.
According to Bloomberg, Yuanbao, owned by Tencent, Alibaba’s Qwen, and Moonshot’s Kimi have also disabled their image recognition features during exam hours.
These measures drew retaliated comments by some frustrated users expressing their dissatisfaction on Weibo.
Suspending AI tools is not the only measure being taken to prevent cheating during exams. In the past, some provinces have introduced AI monitoring systems to detect and flag ‘abnormal behavior’ among students during the Gaokao.
