Fans of Taylor Swift, politicians and the White House on Friday expressed outrage at artificial intelligence (AI)-generated fake pornographic images of the megastar that went viral on X and were still available on other platforms.
One image of the US singer was seen 47 million times on X, formerly Twitter, before it was removed on Thursday. US media reported that the post was live on the platform for about 17 hours.
“It is alarming,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Photo: Reuters
“Sadly we know that lack of enforcement [by social media platforms] disproportionately impacts women and they also impact girls who are the overwhelming targets of online harassment,” Jean-Pierre said.
“Deepfake” porn images of celebrities are not new, but activists and regulators are worried that easy-to-use tools employing generative AI would create an uncontrollable flood of toxic or harmful content.
Noncelebrities are also victims with increasing reports of young women and teens being harassed on social media with sexually explicit deepfakes that are more and more realistic and easy to manufacture.
The targeting of Swift, the second most listened-to artist in the world on Spotify (narrowly after Canadian rapper Drake), could shine a new light on the phenomenon with her legions of fans outraged at the development.
Last year, Swift used her fame to urge her 280 million Instagram followers to vote.
Her fans also pushed the US Congress to hold hearings about Ticketmaster when the company bungled the sale of their hero’s concert tickets in late 2022.
“The only ‘silver lining’ about it happening to Taylor Swift is that she likely has enough power to get legislation passed to eliminate it. You people are sick,” influencer Danisha Carter wrote on X.
X is one of the biggest platforms for porn content in the world, as its policies on nudity are looser than Meta-owned platforms Facebook or Instagram, analysts say.
This has been tolerated by Apple and Google, the gatekeepers for online content through the guidelines they set for their app stores on iPhones and Android smartphones.
In a statement, X said that posting nonconsensual nudity is strictly prohibited, and “we have a zero-tolerance policy towards such content.”
The Elon Musk-owned platform said that it was “actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them.”
However, images continued to be available and shared on Telegram.
Swift’s representatives did not respond to a request for comment.
The star has also been the subject of right-wing conspiracy theories and even fake videos where she is falsely shown to be promoting high-priced cookware from France.
“What’s happened to Taylor Swift is nothing new. For years, women have been targets of deepfakes without their consent,” said Yvette Clarke, a Democratic congresswoman from New York who has backed legislation to fight deepfake porn.
“And with advancements in AI, creating deepfakes is easier and cheaper,” she added.
Meanwhile, the estate of George Carlin on Thursday filed a federal suit in Los Angeles asking that a judge order the podcast outlet Dudesy to immediately take down an hour-long audio special, George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead, in which a synthesis of Carlin delivers commentary on current events.
Carlin died in 2008.
Carlin’s daughter, Kelly Carlin, said in a statement that the work is “a poorly executed facsimile cobbled together by unscrupulous individuals to capitalize on the extraordinary goodwill my father established with his adoring fanbase.”
The lawsuit is among the first in what is likely to be an increasing number of major legal moves made to fight the regenerated use of celebrity images and likenesses.
Josh Schiller, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the “case is not just about AI, it’s about the humans that use AI to violate the law, infringe on intellectual property rights, and flout common decency.”
Additional reporting by AP
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