- Swifties are furious with Elon Musk’s social-media platform, X, after explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift went viral, with one image garnering 45 million views in 17 hours before being taken down.
- Fans flooded the hashtags used to spread the images with videos of Swift performing and called for “#ProtectTaylorSwift” to trend on X.
- Concerns are raised about X’s content moderation capabilities since Musk took over, as highly graphic content, including non-consensual AI-generated nude images and videos of violence, freely circulates on the site.
Additional Coverage:
- Taylor Swift fans are furious about graphic fake AI images of the pop superstar being shared on X (businessinsider.com)
Fans of Taylor Swift, known as Swifties, are angry with Elon Musk’s social-media platform, X, after explicit AI-generated images of the singer went viral. According to The Verge, one image was up on the site for 17 hours and received over 45 million views before being taken down. Musk has reportedly downsized X’s content-moderation teams since taking over in 2022.
Swift fans have expressed their anger on X by flooding the hashtags used to spread the images with videos of the singer performing and by calling for “#ProtectTaylorSwift” to trend on the site. X acknowledged the situation in a post from their “Safety” account, stating that they are actively removing the identified images and taking action against the accounts responsible. However, some images are still circulating on the site, with reports suggesting that they are migrating from a channel on a messaging app dedicated to creating abusive images of women using AI.
There are concerns about X’s content moderation capabilities since Musk took over the platform. Users have complained about the freely circulating highly graphic content on the site, including videos of gang executions and links to apps that create non-consensual nude images using AI. The growing accessibility of AI image generators has raised fears of the creation of “deepfake” naked images of women.
Last year, a UK charity reported that some children were using AI technology in schools to create indecent images of fellow students. In Spain, there was national outrage when AI-generated explicit images of around 20 teenage schoolgirls started spreading on social media. Musk’s X has been criticized for lacking the capacity to effectively deal with spreading disinformation or explicit material due to the downsizing of the content-moderation team. X did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.