AI-generated fake pornographic images of Taylor Swift went viral on X, a former Twitter platform, prompting outrage from fans and politicians, including the White House. One image of the megastar was viewed 47 million times on X before it was removed after approximately 17 hours. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre expressed alarm at the images, highlighting the disproportionate impact of tech platform enforcement on women and girls who are often targets of online harassment.

The emergence of easy-to-use generative AI tools has raised concerns among activists and regulators about the potential for an uncontrollable flood of harmful content, including deepfake porn images of celebrities. This technology has also led to an increasing number of non-celebrities, particularly young women and teens, being harassed with realistic and easily manufactured sexually explicit deepfakes on social media.

The targeting of Taylor Swift, the second most listened-to artist on Spotify, has drawn attention to the issue, with her fans expressing outrage. Swift's influence and her fans' activism have previously led to congressional hearings, such as in the case of Ticketmaster's mishandling of her concert tickets in late 2022.

X, a major platform for porn content, has looser nudity policies compared to Meta-owned platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Despite X's prohibition of Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images and its zero-tolerance policy, the images of Taylor Swift continued to be available and shared on other platforms such as Telegram.

While X stated that it was actively removing identified images and taking appropriate actions against the responsible accounts, the availability of the images persisted. Swift's representatives did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

Politicians from both parties have voiced concerns about the advancement of AI technology outpacing necessary safeguards. They emphasized the need to establish controls to combat the alarming trend of deepfake porn, which disproportionately targets women. However, the passing of federal laws to mandate such controls remains a challenge in the divided US Congress.

US law currently provides broad protection to tech platforms from liability for content posted on their sites, and content moderation is largely voluntary or implicitly imposed by advertisers or app stores. The prevalence of deepfake videos, particularly pornographic ones, has raised significant concerns, with software to create such content widely available on the internet. Research has shown a substantial number of deepfake videos uploaded to popular porn websites, with the vast majority being pornographic in nature.

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