Taylor Swift’s name has mysteriously vanished from searches on the X platform (formerly known as Twitter). This development follows the circulation of explicit AI-generated deepfake images depicting the renowned pop star engaged in various lewd scenarios. Swift, a globally celebrated artist, is now notably absent from the search bar, leaving users to encounter an error message when attempting to find her on the platform.
The scandal unfolded earlier in the week when sexually explicit deepfake images of Taylor Swift surfaced on X and other social media platforms. The artificial intelligence tools responsible for creating these deepfakes can manipulate regular, clothed photos, undressing individuals without their consent. The disturbing images quickly gained traction, with a watermark suggesting their origin from a website notorious for producing fake nude images of celebrities, particularly through its dedicated section labelled “AI deepfake.”
The explicit images, viewed over 27 million times and accumulating more than 260,000 likes within 19 hours, prompted an outcry from Swift’s loyal fan base. The account responsible for posting the deepfakes was eventually suspended, possibly due to a mass-reporting campaign initiated by fans who vehemently opposed the dissemination of these unauthorised and offensive images.
SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, took a stand against the deepfake scandal, condemning the explicit images and advocating for new protective legislation. In a statement, SAG-AFTRA (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) expressed deep concern over the upsetting and harmful nature of the AI-generated images and called for their illegality, particularly those created without an individual’s consent.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also expressed concern and said, “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. 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.”
Swift’s devoted fan community, commonly known as “Swifties,” rallied on social media platforms to counteract the spread of the explicit images. They flooded hashtags such as #ProtectTaylorSwift and #TaylorSwiftAI with positive messages to encourage others to report and reject the unauthorised deepfakes.
The incident involving Taylor Swift is just one among a series of concerns surrounding the rise of AI-generated deepfakes in recent months. The unsettling capabilities of artificial intelligence to create realistic yet entirely fabricated content have raised significant ethical and privacy questions. Deepfake technology has been utilised not only for the unauthorised creation of explicit images but also in the manipulation of audio and video, leading to potential misinformation and the erosion of trust. Recently Sachin Tendulkar was seen in on such deepfake video.
On 16th January, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against a Facebook page and a gaming website after cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar pointed out a deepfake video involving him. A deepfake video showed Tendulkar saying that he and his daughter Sara Tendulkar had won big money from playing a particular internet game. The Mumbai Cyber Police were alerted to the phoney clip by him after which the action was undertaken.
