Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

X restores Taylor Swift searches after deepfake explicit images triggered temporary block

Elon Musk’s social media platform X has restored searches for Taylor Swift after temporarily blocking users from seeing some results as pornographic deepfake images of the singer circulated online

Via AP news wire
Tuesday 30 January 2024 11:34 GMT

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

Elon Musk's social media platform X has restored searches for Taylor Swift after temporarily blocking users from seeing some results as pornographic deepfake images of the singer circulated online.

Searches for the singer's name on the site Tuesday turned up a list of tweets as normal.

A day earlier, the same search resulted in an error message and a prompt for users to retry their search, which added, “Don’t fret — it’s not your fault.” Users, however, had been able to get around the block by putting quote marks around her name.

Sexually explicit and abusive fake images of Swift began circulating widely last week on X, formerly known as Twitter, making her the most famous victim of a scourge that tech platforms and anti-abuse groups have struggled to fix.

“Search has been re-enabled and we will continue to be vigilant for any attempt to spread this content and will remove it if we find it," Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, said in a statement.

Earlier, he said the company had taken “temporary action" to stop the searches and that it was “done with an abundance of caution" as it prioritized safety

At least one search term — Taylor Swift AI — was still apparently blocked. Unlike more conventional doctored images that have troubled celebrities in the past, the Swift images appear to have been created using an artificial intelligence image-generator that can instantly create new images from a written prompt.

After the images began spreading online, the singer’s devoted fanbase of “Swifties” quickly mobilized, launching a counteroffensive on X and a #ProtectTaylorSwift hashtag to flood it with more positive images of the pop star. Some said they were reporting accounts that were sharing the deepfakes.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in