White House, SAG-AFTRA issue statements on Taylor Swift's AI-generated pictures

The White House said on Friday it was alarmed by fake online images of the pop singer Taylor Swift and said social media companies have an important role to play in enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of such misinformation.

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Fake sexually explicit images of Swift proliferated across social media this week, including one image shared on X, formerly Twitter, that the New York Times said was viewed 47 million times before the account was suspended.

“This is very alarming. And so, we’re going to do what we can to deal with this issue,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a news briefing, adding that Congress should take legislative action on the issue.

Lax enforcement against false images, possibly created by artificial intelligence (AI), too often disproportionately affects women, Jean-Pierre said.

“So while social media companies make their own independent decisions about content management, we believe they have an important role to play in enforcing, enforcing their own rules to prevent the spread of misinformation and non-consensual, intimate imagery of real people,” Jean-Pierre said.

Moreover, SAG-AFTRA also issued a statement on the matter yesterday, calling the content ‘upsetting, harmful, and deeply concerning’.

The actor’s union said, “The development and dissemination of fake images — especially those of a lewd nature — without someone’s consent must be made illegal. As a society, we have it in our power to control these technologies, but we must act now before it is too late. We support Taylor, and women everywhere who are the victims of this kind of theft of their privacy and right to autonomy.”

While no official statement was shared from her reps immediately, the sources close to Swift told the international publications she is upset on the matter and is considering legal action.

Taylor Swift is the latest victim of explicit AI-generated pictures