X, the social media network owned by Elon Musk, is blocking users from searches for Taylor Swift as the company responds to fake explicit images of the pop superstar that have gone viral.
Users searching for Ms. Swift were met with a message that stated: “Something went wrong. Try reloading.”
The error message began showing over the weekend and was still appearing as of Jan. 29.
“This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue,” Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, told news outlets in a statement.
Some related searches with Ms. Swift’s name and another word, such as “AI,” were also being blocked. Other combinations, such as “Taylor Swift image,” were still generating results.
Ms. Swift, one of the most popular singers in the world, has drawn renewed interest in recent months after beginning to date an National Football League player. She’s appeared at multiple games, including the American Football Conference championship on Jan. 28, to support him.
Images of Ms. Swift, including sexually explicit images, have been circulating on platforms such as X in recent weeks. Some showed her likeness in compromising positions at football stadiums.
Certain searches still returned such images on Jan. 29 after the search pause was implemented.
The White House weighed in on Jan. 26, decrying the situation and describing it as 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 nonconsensual, intimate imagery of real people,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters in Washington. “Sadly, though, too often, we know that lax enforcement disproportionately impacts women and they also impact girls, sadly, who are the overwhelming targets of harassment and also abuse.”
She said President Joe Biden is committed to reducing the risk of images from artificial intelligence (AI) products.
AI products introduced in recent years can produce images based on word prompts. The images are increasingly used by social media users and bloggers, among others.
President Biden in 2023 issued an executive order that required developers of top AI systems to provide information to the government and directed the U.S. Department of Commerce to “develop guidance for content authentication and watermarking to clearly label AI-generated content.”
Since then, actions taken have included nine government agencies completing AI risk assessments, although others aren’t yet complete, such as the watermarking guidance, the White House said on Jan. 29.
Mr. Musk bought X, then known as Twitter, in 2022 after success with Tesla, SpaceX, and other companies. He hasn’t yet commented on the developments concerning Ms. Swift.
“Posting Non-Consensual Nudity (NCN) images is strictly prohibited on X, and we have a zero-tolerance policy toward such content,” X’s safety team said in a message on Jan. 26. “Our teams are actively removing all identified images and taking appropriate actions against the accounts responsible for posting them.
“We’re closely monitoring the situation to ensure that any further violations are immediately addressed, and the content is removed. We’re committed to maintaining a safe and respectful environment for all users.”
More Content Moderators
X is in the process of hiring 100 content moderators for a new office in Austin, Texas, that will focus on fighting child abuse content, a goal it hopes to complete by the end of the year, a company executive said on Jan. 27.“The team is currently being built,” said Mr. Benarroch, referring to the office in Austin, adding the goal to fill the positions by the end of the year is dependent on finding the right talent.
In a blog post on Jan. 26, X said it suspended 12.4 million accounts last year for violating its rules against child sexual exploitation, which it said was up from 2.3 million account suspensions in 2022.
“Not only are we detecting more bad actors faster, we’re also building new defenses that proactively reduce the discoverability of posts that contain this type of content,” the post stated. The company said it’s working with groups such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
It also stated that minor users account for less than 1 percent of its daily U.S. user base.
The new Austin center will also help the company fight other types of harmful content, X said.
