Chaos on the web/ Fake pornographic photos of Taylor Swift spread

2024-01-27 11:12:00, Lifestyle CNA

Taylor Swift

Pornographic, fake, digitally manipulated images of pop star Taylor Swift are making the rounds online, making the singer the most famous victim of an issue that tech platforms and anti-abuse groups alike are fighting for. fixed.

Images of the singer circulated widely this week on social media platform X.

Her ardent fans, known as "Swifties", quickly mobilized. They launched a counteroffensive on the platform formerly known as Twitter with the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift, flooding the platform with positive images of the pop star. Some said they were reporting accounts that shared fake images of the singer.

Some photos also circulated on Meta-owned Facebook as well as other social media platforms.

"Unfortunately, they were spread to millions and millions of users before they were removed," said Mason Allen, head of the fake-detection group at the social media site Reality Defender.

According to experts, several dozen unique images were created with artificial intelligence.

Researchers have said that the number of what are known as "deepfakes" has increased in recent years, due to greater public access to the technology used to produce such images and the ease of its use.

In 2019, a report published by AI company DeepTrace Labs showed that these images were being used heavily against women. Most of the victims, the company said, were Hollywood actors as well as South Korean K-pop singers.

Brittany Spanos, a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, said that Taylor Swift fans are quick to mobilize in support of their artist, especially those who take what they do very seriously.

"It would be a problem if she doesn't take this case to court," she said.

Ms Spanos says the latest fake photos of the singer are consistent with other cases she has had in the past, noting her 2017 lawsuit against a radio station DJ who allegedly harassed her sexually the singer. The jury decided to award Taylor Swift $1 in damages, an amount that her attorney, Douglas Baldridge, called a "symbolic dollar" whose value is immeasurable compared to what "all women in this situation," amid the "MeToo" movement. The $1 lawsuit turned into a trend afterward, as in actress Gwyneth Paltrow's 2023 countersuit against a skier.

To a request for comment regarding the sharing of the photos on the X network, the social media company responded:

"Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate action against the accounts responsible for posting them," the company wrote on the X network on Friday. "We are closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further infringements are dealt with promptly and the content removed."

Meanwhile, the company Meta said in a statement that it strongly condemns "the content that has appeared on the Internet and that it has worked to remove it".

Representatives for singer Taylor Swift did not respond to a request for comment Friday./VOA