Growing calls for change in law as Taylor Swift gets embroiled in deepfake pornographic images
Taylor Swift
The ongoing cyber attack on Taylor Swift has shaken the world. Every time you search for Taylor Swift on X and other social media platforms, what pops up are deepfake pornographic images of the celebrated singer much to the dislike of her fans and internet users in general. This attack hasboldened the need to criminalise the practice in which artificial intelligence is used to synthesise fake but convincing explicit imagery.
Having started from Telegram and then to X, Taylor Swift’s search has been littered with pornographic images of hers. These images have now been removed from various platforms but only after theywere viewed millions of times. In a statement, X said, “Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actionagainst the accounts responsible for posting them.”
Meanwhile, calls for legislation that restricts online users from doing so have been growing. Yvette D Clarke, a Democratic congresswoman for New York, wrote on X: “What’s happened to Taylor Swift is nothing new. For yrs, women have been targets of deepfakes [without] their consent. And [with] advancements in AI, creating deepfakes is easier & cheaper. This is an issue both sides of the aisle & even Swifties should be able to come together to solve.”
Some individual US states have their own legislation against deepfakes, but there is a growing push for a change to federal law.
In May 2023, Democratic congressman Joseph Morelle unveiled the proposed Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act. This act aimed at making it illegal to share deepfake pornography without consent.
Republican congressman Tom Kean Jr said, “It is clear that AI technology is advancing faster than the necessary guardrails. Whether the victim is Taylor Swift or any young person across our country, we need to establish safeguards to combat this alarming trend.”
As for Taylor Swift, she is yet to respond to the whole matter.
