White House expresses alarm over Taylor Swift deepfakes circulating online

The White House has expressed deep concern over the proliferation of fake sexually explicit images of pop sensation Taylor Swift circulating across social media platforms. In a statement issued on Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre underscored the gravity of the situation and called upon social media companies to take decisive action to curb the spread of such misinformation.

The disturbing images, which surfaced earlier this week, garnered widespread attention, with one particularly egregious example reportedly being viewed a staggering 47 million times on X, formerly known as Twitter, before the account responsible was suspended, according to a report by The New York Times.

Addressing reporters during a press briefing, Jean-Pierre emphasised the urgency of the matter, stating, "This is very alarming. And so, we're going to do what we can to deal with this issue." She further urged Congress to consider legislative measures to combat the dissemination of false imagery, particularly those potentially generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

Jean-Pierre highlighted the disproportionate impact of lax enforcement against fabricated images, particularly on women. "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," she remarked.

Meanwhile, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has voiced his concerns regarding the explicit artificial intelligence (AI) manipulations of Swift, labelling them as "alarming and terrible." Speaking to NBC Nightly News, Nadella emphasized the urgency of addressing the issue swiftly, stating, "I think it behoves us to move fast on this."

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