X Acts To Protect Taylor Swift After Fake Explicit Pictures of Her Spread

Recently, Swifties had a lot to worry about after fake Taylor Swift explicit pictures circulated on social media. According to reports, the perpetrators created the images using deepfake technology. This type of AI can manipulate or fabricate visual and audio content. The fake explicit photos of Taylor Swift gained traction on X, prompting an immediate response from the social media giant. They protected Swift by implementing measures to combat the spread of these malicious images.

Fake Taylor Swift Explicit Pictures Go Viral On Social Media 

Last week, Taylor Swift became a victim of the dark side of technology. Fans of the singer found themselves worrying and advocating on X after fake Taylor Swift’s explicit pictures began spreading on the platform. The most viral of these photos were football-related, showing a bloodied or painted Swift that objectified her. In some cases, these images showed the icon’s deepfake persona inflicted with violent harm. One of the pictures even garnered over 45 million views, 24,000 reposts, and thousands of comments. 

Days after the fake pictures of Taylor Swift began spreading on X, Reality Defender, a deepfake-detecting group, began investigations. In no time, researchers discovered these photos were AI-generated. According to a report, the perpetrators likely generated the pictures on Microsoft’s text-to-image generator. Shortly after this information came to light, Microsoft addressed the situation. In a statement released on Monday, they revealed they had strengthened their existing safety systems to prevent the misuse of their services.

X Springs Into Action to Protect Taylor Swift 

X didn’t remain silent about the terrible situation, as they sprung into action immediately, blocking searches for the Grammy winner. Any attempt to search for Swift’s name on the site without quotation marks resulted in an “error.” In other cases, fans received a prompt to retry their search with the statement, “Don’t fret — it’s not your fault,” attached. Shortly after the protective measure, Joe Benarroch, the head of business operations at X, released a statement. 

“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue,” he said. 

Besides X, fans also rallied around the singer. They flooded X with more positive images of Swift alongside the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift. Others who couldn’t post reported accounts that shared fake Taylor Swift explicit pictures.