Those searching for the worldâs most famous pop star on the X platform right now will not yield any results.
X users who search for âTaylor Swiftâ will be blocked from doing so after explicit yet digitally fabricated images of the singer were shared across the platform.
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Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, told The Wall Street Journal that this is âa temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize Safety on this issue.â
The altered images of Swift were first circulated on Wednesday, leading to complaints from her fans, who responded by flooding the platform with real images.
Her fans even managed to make the phrase âprotect Taylor Swiftâ one of the platformâs trending topics as they urged the company to take swift action against accounts promoting the false images.
In a statement that did not mention Swift by name, the company declared they had a âzero-tolerance policyâ about the sharing of such material and users caught doing so would be restricted or suspended.
âOur teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them,â the company said.
âWeâre closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further violations are immediately addressed, and the content is removed.â
According to a report from The Daily Mail, Swift was left âfuriousâ about the images, which have been seen a reported 27 million times.
âWhether or not legal action will be taken is being decided but there is one thing that is clear: these fake AI-generated images are abusive, offensive, exploitative, and done without Taylorâs consent and/or knowledge,â a source told the paper.
The issue even caught the notice of the White House, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre describing the rise of the AI-generated images as âalarming.â
âWe know that lax enforcement disproportionately impacts women and they also impact girls, sadly, who are the overwhelming targets,â said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a briefing.
She said social media companies, such as X, âhave an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people.â
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
