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Taylor Swift is reportedly “furious” that AI-generated nude images of her were circulating across social media on Thursday — and she’s weighing possible legal action against the site responsible for generating the photos, according to a report.

“Whether or not legal action will be taken is being decided but there is one thing that is clear: these fake AI generated images are abusive, offensive, exploitative and done without Taylors consent and/or knowledge,” a source close to the 34-year-old pop star told the Daily Mail.

“Taylors circle of family and friends are furious, as are her fans obviously. They have the right to be, and every woman should be,” the source added, noting that the X account that originally posted the X-rated content “does not exist anymore.”

A source close to Swift added, per the news site: “The door needs to be shut on this. Legislation needs to be passed to prevent this and laws must be enacted.”

After the pics took the internet by storm Thursday morning, Swifties banned together and tried to bury the images by sharing an influx of positive posts about the “Shake It Off” singer.

As of Thursday afternoon, the photos in question — which showed Swift in various sexualized positions at a Kansas City Chiefs game, a nod to her highly-publicized romance with the teams tight end, Travis Kelce — appeared to be yanked from the platform.

The crude images were traced back to an account under the handle @FloridaPigMan, which no longer bears any results on X.

The account reportedly garnered the images from Celeb Jihad, which boasts a collection of fake pornographic imagery, or “deepfakes,” using celebrities’ likenesses.

Once posted to X, the images were viewed more than 45 million times, reposted some 24,000 times and liked by hundreds of thousands of people before @FloridaPigMan, a verified account, was suspended for violating the platform’s policy, according to The Verge.

The images were on X for about 17 hours before their removal, The Verge reported.

“It is shocking that the social media platform even let them be up to begin with,” a source close to Swift told the Daily Mail.

X’s Help Center outlines policies on “synthetic and manipulated media” as well as “nonconsensual nudity,” which both prohibit X-rated deepfakes from being posted on the site.

Representatives for X did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment. Swift also has yet to comment on the images in question.

Her fanbase had a lot to say on the matter, though, lashing out at legislators for not having more stringent policies surrounding AI’s use in place.

Others lambasted that this incident exposes a larger issue: “Yes the Taylor Swift AI pie is disgusting but so is the all the deepfake porn out there. … It needs to be regulated because it is done without consent,” one X user wrote.

I wish the public was horrified by AI porn without Taylor Swift being involved, but the disgusting thing is this could be the only thing that moves the needle and and gets the ball rolling on a crackdown. Don't ever tell me she doesn't have power to spur change.

“I wish the public was horrified by AI porn without Taylor Swift being involved,” another said. “The disgusting thing is this could be the only thing that moves the needle and and gets the ball rolling on a crackdown. Don’t ever tell me she doesn’t have power to spur change.”

It’s unclear what type of legislation could be brought against @FloridaPigMan, as regulations around AI vary state to state, or if Swift would sue Celeb Jihad, X or the user behind the X account.

Swift previously threatened legal action against Celeb Jihad back in 2011 after it shared another fake nude image, but nothing ever came of it as the site claimed it’s a “satire” rather than a pornographic website — as well as disclaimers that it respects A-listers’ intellectual property, according to the Daily Mail.

Nonconsensual deepfake pornography has also been made illegal in Texas, Minnesota, New York, Hawaii and Georgia, though it hasnt been successful in stopping the circulation of AI-generated nude images at high schools in New Jersey and Florida, where explicit deepfake images of female students were circulated by male classmates.

Last week, Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-NY) and Tom Kean (R-NJ) reintroduced a bill that would make the nonconsensual sharing of digitally altered pornographic images a federal crime, with imposable penalties like jail time, a fine or both.

The Preventing Deepfakes of Intimate Images Act was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, but the committee has yet to make a decision on whether or not to pass the bill.

Aside from making the sharing of digitally-altered intimate images a criminal offense, Morelle and Keans proposed legislation also would allow victims to sue offenders in civil court. 

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Technology

How working for Big Tech lost ‘dream job’ status

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57 mins ago

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April 28, 2024

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How working for Big Tech lost 'dream job' status

Despite blockbuster earnings from giants such as Alphabet and Microsoft, layoffs continue to ripple through the tech industry.

Layoffs.fyi, a platform monitoring job cuts in the tech sector, recorded more than 263,000 job losses in 2023 alone. As of April, there have been more than 75,000 job losses in the industry so far in 2024.

“So instead of rewarding the growth that we saw [tech companies] all pursue years ago, they’re now rewarding profit,” said Jeff Shulman, professor at the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. “And so the layoffs have continued. People have become used to them. Regrettably and sadly, it seems that the layoffs are going to be the new normal.”

Even though mass tech layoffs continue, the labor market still seems strong. The U.S. economy added 303,000 jobs in March, well above the Dow Jones estimate for a rise of 200,000, with the unemployment rate edged lower to 3.8%.

According to Handshake, a popular free job posting site for college students and graduates, the tech layoffs have prompted new workers to seek other opportunities. The share of job applications from tech majors submitted to internet and software companies dropped by more than 30% between November 2021 and September 2023.

“Part of the reason why this is happening is because stability is such a major factor in students’ decisions around what types of jobs they apply to and what types of jobs they accept,” said Christine Cruzverga, chief education strategy officer at Handshake. “They’re looking at the headlines in the news and they’re paying attention to all of the layoffs that are happening in Big Tech, and that makes them feel unstable.”

Mass layoffs have eroded the shine of the tech industry, which is why workers are questioning whether getting a job in the tech industry should still be regarded as a “dream job.”

“For the people who are chasing … a tech dream job, I think keep your options open and be realistic,” said Eric Tolotti, senior partner engineer at Snowflake, who got laid off from Microsoft in 2023. “Don’t just focus on one company and feel like you have to get into that one company because it’s the dream.”

Watch the video to learn about tech workers’ sentiments, considerations for aspiring Big Tech employees, and more.

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World

Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

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57 mins ago

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April 28, 2024

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Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Ireland is pledging emergency legislation enabling it to send asylum seekers back to the UK.

More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.

Rishi Sunak told Sky News it showed the UK’s Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent after it finally became law last week.

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Ireland plans to return migrants to UK

Read more: Anti-immigrant camp in Dublin ‘not about racism’, residents say

Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said the threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.

Micheal Martin said the policy was already affecting Ireland because people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.

The former taoiseach told The Daily Telegraph: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”

Protesters at an 'Ireland Says No' anti-refugee gathering in Dublin. File pic: Niall Carson/PA
Image:
Protesters in Dublin. Pic: PA

Simon Harris, Ireland’s latest leader, has asked Ms McEntee to “bring proposals to cabinet to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”, a spokesman said.

Ms McEntee said she will be meeting UK Home Secretary James Cleverly in London on Monday.

“There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration towards Ireland,” she told RTE.

“My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.

“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the home secretary to raise these issues on Monday.”

People are now “worried” about coming to the UK, Rishi Sunak has said.

He told Sky News: “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay here, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”

Read more:
Tory MP and doctor Dan Poulter defects to Labour
Humza Yousaf to reject pact with Alex Salmond’s Alba Party

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Are migrants fleeing from UK to Ireland?

Mr Sunak said the comments from Irish politicians show that “illegal migration is a global challenge”.

“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe [they] will follow where the UK has led,” he said.

Shadow minister Wes Streeting said it was unlikely a Labour government would bring people back from Rwanda if some are sent there.

“Once people are settled in Rwanda, they’re settled in Rwanda,” he told Sky News, adding it was doubtful that Labour would “unpick that situation”.

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Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

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Regarding illegal migration in general, he said it required “putting the money that’s gone to Rwanda into the National Crime Agency so we can have proper cross-border policing to tackle the criminal gangs, speeding up the processing of decision-making, making sure we’ve got serious returns agreements with other countries”.

He added: “Those are solutions that can work.”

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UK

Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Published

57 mins ago

on

April 28, 2024

By

Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Ireland is pledging emergency legislation enabling it to send asylum seekers back to the UK.

More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.

Rishi Sunak told Sky News it showed the UK’s Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent after it finally became law last week.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Ireland plans to return migrants to UK

Read more: Anti-immigrant camp in Dublin ‘not about racism’, residents say

Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said the threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.

Micheal Martin said the policy was already affecting Ireland because people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.

The former taoiseach told The Daily Telegraph: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”

Protesters at an 'Ireland Says No' anti-refugee gathering in Dublin. File pic: Niall Carson/PA
Image:
Protesters in Dublin. Pic: PA

Simon Harris, Ireland’s latest leader, has asked Ms McEntee to “bring proposals to cabinet to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”, a spokesman said.

Ms McEntee said she will be meeting UK Home Secretary James Cleverly in London on Monday.

“There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration towards Ireland,” she told RTE.

“My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.

“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the home secretary to raise these issues on Monday.”

People are now “worried” about coming to the UK, Rishi Sunak has said.

He told Sky News: “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay here, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”

Read more:
Tory MP and doctor Dan Poulter defects to Labour
Humza Yousaf to reject pact with Alex Salmond’s Alba Party

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Are migrants fleeing from UK to Ireland?

Mr Sunak said the comments from Irish politicians show that “illegal migration is a global challenge”.

“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe [they] will follow where the UK has led,” he said.

Shadow minister Wes Streeting said it was unlikely a Labour government would bring people back from Rwanda if some are sent there.

“Once people are settled in Rwanda, they’re settled in Rwanda,” he told Sky News, adding it was doubtful that Labour would “unpick that situation”.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

Regarding illegal migration in general, he said it required “putting the money that’s gone to Rwanda into the National Crime Agency so we can have proper cross-border policing to tackle the criminal gangs, speeding up the processing of decision-making, making sure we’ve got serious returns agreements with other countries”.

He added: “Those are solutions that can work.”

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