Taylor Swift's name became searchable on X once again, following its temporary blockage over the weekend due to the presence of nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake images featuring the singer as of Tuesday morning.
On X, a routine search conducted on early Tuesday for the popular music icon found the usual abusive fake images, followed by a mass of tweets primarily discussing her presence at the Kansas City Chiefs' NFL game on Sunday.
Last week, Taylor Swift became the primary focus of a concerning issue that tech platforms and anti-abuse organizations have been grappling with: the widespread circulation of sexually explicit and abusive fake images. These images, generated using artificial intelligence systems that rely on written prompts as input, have raised alarm among users on the platform.
The unauthorized creation of these images without the consent of the individuals involved has sparked concerns about the potential misuse of AI technology to distribute deceptive content, thus violating the privacy of the subjects. In response, some people have taken proactive measures by reporting such posts, while others have attempted to divert attention away from this problem, reducing its visibility in discussions.
However, starting from Saturday, it became unavailable to search for Swift's name on X. Instead, users were met with an error message saying, "Something went wrong. Try reloading."
Joe Benarroch, the head of business operations at X, assured The Associated Press that the search functionality has now been restored. He further emphasized their commitment to closely monitoring any attempts to disseminate inappropriate content and promptly removing it from the platform.
However, the search results for "Taylor Swift AI" remain inaccessible to users. The ability to search for the renowned star was disabled due to the emergence of concerning deepfake sexually ai images. These deepfakes, which are manipulated images created using artificial intelligence, began circulating on X on Wednesday. Shockingly, these images depicted Swift in explicit and sexual situations.
The origin of these disturbing images remains unclear. However, they contained a watermark that suggests they were sourced from a website notorious for publishing fake nude images of celebrities. This particular website even has a dedicated section for "AI deepfake" content.
In response to these deepfakes, Swift's devoted fans took swift action. They mass reported the images and immersed the hashtag "Taylor Swift AI" with an issues of positive messages in support of her.
