The Taylor Swift deepfake scandal: ‘It’s men telling a powerful woman to get back in her box’

For victims of non-consensual deepfake pornography, the events of the past week will have been a horrible reminder of their own abuse

The deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift circulating on X were taken down, which is far from the norm, as evidenced by other victims. Picture: AP/Julio Cortez

For almost a whole day last week, deepfake pornographic images of Taylor Swift rapidly spread through X. 

The social media platform, formerly Twitter, was so slow to react that one image racked up 47 million views before it was taken down. It was largely Swift’s fans who mobilised and mass-reported the images, and there was a sense of public anger, with even the White House calling it “alarming”. X eventually removed the images and blocked searches to the pop star’s name on Sunday evening.