Outraged fans fight back against Taylor Swift AI porn images
After viral deepfakes of the pop star go viral on X, Swifties and the platform take action
A series of AI-generated images of Taylor Swift in suggestive and pornographic situations are causing an uproar on Twitter/X. While some of the images have been taken down, others remain on the platform and Swift’s army of fans have embarked on a campaign to bury the images by flooding the platform with their responses.
At least one of the images stayed online for 17 hours, racking up 45 million views and hundreds of thousands of likes, reposts, and bookmarks before X banned the account that shared the original image. The term “Taylor Swift AI” is trending on X across the globe.
404 Media reports that the images originated in a Telegram group dedicated to non-consensual deepfakes and otherwise abusive images of women. Members of the group, known for generating images using a text-to-image AI generator in Microsoft Designer, reportedly joked and celebrated about the deepfakes going viral. Alex Kaplan, a researcher at the nonprofit Media Matters for America, tweeted that AI-generated pornographic images of Taylor Swift have been making the rounds on 4chan for months.
A Microsoft representative said the company is looking into the issue. X and representatives for Swift did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Swift hasn’t spoken publicly about the deepfakes, but a Daily Mail report says the pop star isn’t happy.
Swift stans jumped to action to protect their icon. Swifties mobilized to mass report accounts sharing the AI deepfakes, including one account with over 480,000 followers that was subsequently banned by X. Fans posted thousands of banal images using related phrases and hashtags such as “Taylor Swift AI,” mounting a “Protect Taylor Swift” campaign to make the original images difficult to find.
Elon Musk’s X has policies against non-consensual nudity and synthetic and manipulated media that prohibit content like the abusive images of Swift, but her supporters have criticized the company for being slow to act.
Thomas Germain is a writer for Gizmodo, which like The A.V. Club, is owned by G/O Media.