White House “Alarmed” Over Taylor Swift Deepfake, Calling for New AI Legislation; X/Twitter Makes Her Name Unsearchable

Both Twitter/X and the White House are attempting to crack down on AI-generated deepfakes after explicit images that depicted Taylor Swift went viral on the platform. The images showed up on Twitter/X early in the week of Monday, January 22, and quickly made “Taylor Swift AI” a trending search. However, the platform made Taylor Swift’s name unsearchable only recently on Saturday, January 26.

The explicit AI-generated images drew criticism from multiple sources, including Swifties. Fans tried to block the AI images by flooding the search term with images and videos of Swift performing on tour. Now, searching for “Taylor Swift” on Twitter/X will produce an intentional error message reading “Something went wrong. Try reloading.”

“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue,” said Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at Twitter/X, per Variety. However, according to a report from Rolling Stone, searching “Taylor Swift Chiefs” or “Taylor AI Swift” still produced results.

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White House and SAG-AFTRA Release Statements About “Appalling” Taylor Swift Deepfakes

Responses to the images came from the White House and SAG-AFTRA, with the latter saying in a statement on Friday, January 25, “The development and dissemination of fake images — especially those of a lewd nature — without someone’s consent must be made illegal.” SAG-AFTRA also included support for Congressman Joe Morelle’s Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act, which was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary in May 2023.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre made a statement on Friday as well, per a report from The Hill. She stated, “We are alarmed by the reports of the circulation of the … false images.” Jean-Pierre continued, “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.”

Jean-Pierre concluded, “Sadly, though, too often we know that lax enforcement disproportionately impacts women and they also impact girls, sadly, who are the overwhelming targets of online harassment and also abuse.”

Congressman Joe Morelle said AI-generated deepfakes “can cause irrevocable emotional, financial, and reputational harm,” calling the Taylor Swift images “appalling” and reiterating the disproportional harm they do to women.

According to the Responsible Artificial Intelligence Institute, there are no federal regulations on deepfakes. However, there are a few statewide legislations attempting to govern artificial intelligence. For example, California and Texas both passed laws in 2019. There is no current information about where the images originated, or if they have been completely purged from Twitter/X.

Featured Image by Amy Sussman/Getty Images