American pop star Taylor Swift is the latest victim of s*xually explicit deepfakes that went viral on Twitter last Wednesday. The set of photos amassed over 27 million views and more than 260,000 likes until the social media platform suspended the account that posted the lewd images.
Fans of the singer and several organizations condemned the act and expressed concern regarding the widespread use of artificial intelligence tools that can generate inappropriate images of celebrities and even regular people.
Taylor Swift Becomes The Latest Prey Of AI-Generated Deepfakes
Twitter, now known as X, has banned all searches pertaining to Taylor Swift to slow down the spreading of fake graphic images. Any keyword searches that would include the name of the singer will render an error message. The platform’s head of business operations Joe Benarroch shared a statement to the Wall Street Journal:
“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue.”
Meanwhile, the White House also addressed the issue. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said after a query on making a law against AI-generated p*rn images via Variety:
“We are alarmed by the reports of the circulation of images that you just laid out… There should be legislation, obviously, to deal with this issue.”
The Safety team of X also shared a statement claiming they are closely monitoring and removing identified images to maintain a safe community for its users.
“Posting Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images is strictly prohibited on X, and we have a zero-tolerance policy towards such content. Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them.”
This has been a rampant issue that’s been happening around the globe. With the magnitude of Swift’s fame, the controversy has finally been put under the microscope.
Lots of Twitter users confessed to feeling traumatized after seeing the explicit images online. Most of the accounts reposting the images have been suspended.
What Experts Say On The Case Of AI Deepfakes
In May 2023, Rep. Joe Morelle, D-NY, introduced a bill that would penalize nonconsensual s*xually explicit AI deepfakes. Since the time it was proposed, there has not been any progress. But with this issue involving Taylor Swift, people are expecting development.
Atty. Carrie Goldberg criticized social media platforms for not strongly imposing their rules against this type of offense and told NBC News:
“Most human beings don’t have millions of fans who will go to bat for them if they’ve been victimized. Even those platforms that do have deepfake policies, they’re not great at enforcing them, or especially if content has spread very quickly, it becomes the typical whack-a-mole scenario.”
Finally, she claimed that the root cause of problem also has the remedy, and it’s only a matter of research and experimentation that people can take advantage of technology to help solve the spread of inappropriate images.
“Just as technology is creating the problem, it’s also the obvious solution. AI on these platforms can identify these images and remove them. If there’s a single image that’s proliferating, that image can be watermarked and identified as well. So there’s no excuse.”
Twitter will be blocking all search attempts with Taylor Swift’s name until they have ascertained that the platform is finally free of those vulgar images.
