Taylor Swift And Deepfake Pornography: The Urgent Need For Legislation

An alarming phenomenon has been growing in the digital world in the last several weeks. Shockingly realistic but AI-generated explicit pictures of pop star Taylor Swift have spread across different social media platforms, creating unrest among her fans, with fresh concerns about fast-rising deepfake pornography.

This evil practice of creating fake explicit images of celebrities is, unfortunately, not a new phenomenon. Nevertheless, the concerning aspect of this development is the emergence of modern AI instruments that can quickly produce fictitious information, making it hard to distinguish manufactured data from actual data.

While the potential misuse of deepfakes for propagating falsehoods has been intensely scrutinized, an alarming statistic has emerged. Research indicates that a staggering 98% of all AI-generated videos on the internet are explicit, with an overwhelming majority of the victims being women.

From Celebrities to Ordinary Individuals: The Deepening Crisis

Celebrities – from movie stars and musicians to social media icons – are often the target of pornographic deepfakes. The worrying part is that this disturbing trend is not limited here. Nowadays, average women and even underaged girls are becoming victims of this harmful act.

A case in point is a shocking episode from last year when students at a New Jersey high school manipulated AI tools to generate explicit images of over 30 female classmates. This is not an isolated incident, with similar cases coming to light in numerous other educational institutions across the United States and beyond its borders.

Legal Ambiguity and the Need for Stronger Laws

While distributing authentic explicit images without the subject’s consent is illegal in nearly every state, mainly when the individual is a minor, the legal framework surrounding artificial pornography is far less robust. The psychological harm inflicted on victims of such digitally manipulated content can be as devastating as that caused by actual explicit content. Yet, only a handful of states have laws banning deepfake pornography, and there are no federal laws addressing the issue.

Despite most social media platforms having policies against AI-generated explicit content, the sheer scale of the problem, coupled with lax moderation, enables it to thrive unabated on their platforms.

Possible Solutions and the Road Ahead

Although it may seem an uphill battle to completely eradicate AI-generated explicit content due to the vastness of the digital ecosystem, experts suggest that significant strides can curb its prevalence and mitigate the damage it inflicts.

Some bills have been presented at the national level, aiming to provide robust protection against deep fake pornography. These measures entail levying legal penalties on the creators of such content and enabling victims to claim compensation.

Industry observers also stress the importance of public demand on the entities that do the manufacturing, mass production, and profit from AI-generated and explicit content. This comprises social media platforms, credit card companies, AI developers, and search engines. The hope is that fear of potential lawsuits from high-profile victims like Swift could create considerable financial risk, prompting these entities to take more robust measures against deepfakes.

However, specialists point out that we have already failed in fighting such AI-driven explicit content. They highlight the technical challenges in spotting and preventing the significant split of the deepfakes and the poor policies in managing deepfakes.

Following the recent deepfake incident, Taylor Swift is considering taking legal action. Although there is a great deal of hustle and bustle around the issue, it is yet uncertain when the bill concerning AI-generated explicit content will come to a vote in Congress. That means a looming long story in the struggle against the digital foe.