X blocks searches for Taylor Swift to combat explicit deepfakes

Social media platform

As of Sunday night, searches for “Taylor Swift” on the social media platform were displaying the error message: “Something went wrong. Try reloading.”

Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, confirmed the move to The Hill.

“A temporary action and carried out with great caution, as we prioritize safety in this matter,” Benarroch said in a statement on Sunday.

Sexually explicit fake images of Swift circulated online last week, sparking backlash from fans, who flooded the platform with positive photos of the singer with the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift.

Deepfake detection group Reality Defend said it tracked down several non-consensual pornographic materials featuring Swift, which spread to “millions and millions” of users when some were removed, Mason Allen, Reality’s head of growth, told The Associated Press. Defend.

The images were found primarily on X, although some were found on Meta-owned Facebook and other social media platforms, the newswire added.

The White House said last week that Swift’s circulation of explicit AI-generated content (often called deepfakes) was “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 intimate and non-consensual images. of real people,” said press secretary Karine Jean. -Pierre told reporters last Friday.

The incident sparked conversations about the risks posed by AI-generated content and renewed calls from federal lawmakers on social media platforms to better enforce rules against deepfakes.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella urged more “guardrails” for AI following the incident.

In October, President Biden signed a sweeping executive order on artificial intelligence that focused on managing the security and privacy risks that come with emerging technology.