In a recent controversy, pop artist Taylor Swift found herself at the center of attention as pornographic AI images featuring her surfaced across the internet. Despite efforts by platforms like X to restrict users from searching for such images, the White House released a statement on the issue, calling on Congress to "take legislative action."
If only they had this sense of urgency when it came to helping everyday Americans.
From Hollywood Reporter:
Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told ABC News, “We are alarmed by the reports of the … circulation of images that you just laid out — of false images to be more exact, and it is alarming … While social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation, and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people.”
While New York’s congressman Joe Morelle is citing the Swift nudes to push to pass a bill making nonconsensual sharing of digitally-altered explicit images a federal crime.
X and other social media platforms attempted to scrub their platforms of the Swift images, which went viral on Wednesday, but some new Swift-inspired fake images that were different from the originals began to circulate in their place, possibly making enforcement more difficult.
The original images depicted Swift in red body paint sexually cavorting with Kansas City Chiefs fans, mocking her romance with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. On Sunday, the Chiefs play their pivotal AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens which will decide which team goes to the Super Bowl.
So far, Twitter/X boss Elon Musk has been uncharacteristically silent on the issue, instead commenting Saturday on matters such as a San Francisco toy store closing due to the city’s crime issues. Swift hasn’t issued a comment, either, though unverified reports have claimed the singer is considering legal action.
