CONTENT WARNING: This article discusses image based abuse.
Days after AI-generated explicit images of Taylor Swift spread like wildfire on social media, the White House Press Secretary says it’s “alarmed” by the circulation of the fake photos and has urged Congress to take action.
Late last week, several AI-generated explicit images of the singer went viral on X, formerly known as Twitter. An insider reported to the Daily Mail that Taylor Swift is reportedly “furious” over the pictures.
They also claimed that she’s considering what legal action she could take against the site that generated the photos, as its watermark was visible in the corner of the images.
Following the incident, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said they are “alarmed” by what happened to Swift. She has also called for Congress to “take legislative action” over the circulation of the images.
“We are alarmed by the reports of the…circulation of images that you just laid out — of false images to be more exact, and it is alarming,” Jean-Pierre said, as per ABC News.
“While social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation, and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people.”
The White House Press Secretary also highlighted a number of actions the administration has done to tackle this issue such as implementing a task force to address online harassment and abuse, and the Department of Justice launching the first national 24/7 helplines for survivors of image-based sexual abuse.
How has X responded to the Taylor Swift AI-generated photos?
On Sunday morning, users noticed that it was impossible to search for “Taylor Swift” in the site’s search function. A few hours later, a spokesperson from X confirmed to Page Six that the function was turned off on their end.
“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue,” X told the publication.
As of writing, it is still impossible to search for Taylor Swift, however, you can search for “Taylor” on its own as well as “Swift”.
On Friday, January 26, X’s Safety account posted a statement, claiming its teams are “actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting” the photos.
Although the original X user who posted the images was banned from the site, the photos have unfortunately continued to spread on the internet.
It’s absolutely disturbing to see how fast these fakes were quickly shared across the net, and hopefully, this public outcry from folks across the globe will lead to some legislation around deepfake and AI-generated porn.
Image source: Getty Images / Octavio Jones/TAS23 and NurPhoto
Recording, sharing, or threatening to share an intimate image without consent is a criminal offence across much of Australia. If you’d like to report image based abuse to police or get help removing an intimate image from social media, reach out to the Australian eSafety Commissioner here.
- If you’d like to speak to someone about image based abuse, please call the 1800
- Respect hotline on 1800 737 732 or chat online.
- Under 25? You can reach Kids Helpline at 1800 55 1800 or chat online.
