In a surprising move, the social media platform
A search for Swift's name on Monday morning on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter returned the error message: “An error has occurred. Try loading again.”
“This is a temporary measure and is being undertaken with the utmost caution as we prioritize safety in this matter,” Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, said in a statement. There are rumors that Swift's legal team may be planning legal action.
According to a New York Times report, an image of Swift shared on X was viewed 47 million times before the account was suspended. The company was widely criticized for its seemingly slow response to the images' emergence and eventually closed the account from which they came.
Since billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, he has faced criticism for his own controversial posts and his efforts to overhaul the platform's content moderation policies. Many advertisers on the platform have scaled back their spending for fear of appearing next to harmful posts.
A leader of
This is the message that greets users who try to search for Swift on X
The message reassures users that it's not their fault that Swift content isn't showing up in search
The singer is the seventh most followed person on X. At the time of writing, users can't even look up her profile. Despite being so popular, Swift only posted 816 messages. For comparison, number six on the list, her former romantic rival Katy Perry, posted 12,000 tweets.
Videos of Swift celebrating with friend Travis Kelce after helping the Kansas City Chiefs advance to the Super Bowl on Sunday night still appear in media searches, as do lists of Swift's superfans on the site.
Ironically, all of the very explicit AI-generated images first appeared in the Media tab before X began suspending accounts that re-shared them last week.
Following the release of the vile images, Swift's passionate Swifties fanbase quickly mobilized, launching a counteroffensive on the platform formerly known as Twitter and a #ProtectTaylorSwift hashtag to flood them with more positive images of the pop star.
Some said they reported accounts that shared the deepfakes.
Deepfake detection group Reality Defender said it had been tracking a flood of non-consensual pornographic material depicting Swift, particularly on X. Some images also made their way onto Facebook and other Meta social media platforms.
Travis Kelce kisses his girlfriend Taylor after leading his Chiefs team to a Super Bowl berth
America's favorite couple had a moment to celebrate with the eyes of the entire world on them
Media searches for Swift still appear, although this was the same section where the deepfake images were first seen
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the fake images “alarming” on Friday and said social media companies had a responsibility to prevent the spread of such misinformation.
Jean-Pierre told a news conference that lax enforcement of false images that may have been created by artificial intelligence (AI) disproportionately affects women.
A source close to Swift said: “Whether or not legal action will be taken is still being decided, but one thing is clear: these fake AI-generated images are offensive, insulting, exploitative and are created without Taylor's consent and knowledge.”
They said: “The Twitter account that posted it no longer exists.” It's shocking that the social media platform even allowed it.
“These images must be removed from wherever they exist and should not be promoted by anyone.”
“Taylor's family and friends are beside themselves, and so are her fans.” They have the right to do this, and every woman should be.
“The door must remain closed.” To prevent this, laws must be passed and laws must be enacted.”
The vile sites hide in plain sight and appear to be disguised by proxy IP addresses.
X released a statement almost a day after the images began publishing, saying: “Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate action against the accounts responsible for publishing these images.”
A Meta spokesperson told : “This content violates our policies and we are removing it from our platforms and taking action against the accounts that posted it.”
“We continue to monitor and if we identify additional infringing content, we will remove it and take appropriate action.”