Laws must be passed to protect people from fake sexual images generated by AI, the White House said this afternoon. The statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre came in response to a question about the spread of fake sexualized photos of Taylor Swift on social media this week.
Jean-Pierre called the incident “alarming” and said it was among the AI issues the Biden administration has prioritized.
“Of course Congress should take legislative action,” said Jean-Pierre. “This is how you deal with some of these problems.” She did not refer to specific legislation the White House supports.
“Of course there should be laws to address this issue.”
The images went viral on X in particular on Wednesday night, with one of them reaching 45 million views before it was removed. The platform was slow to respond and the post remained online for around 17 hours. The images later spread to smaller accounts and are still available on X.
Jean-Pierre said social media platforms “play an important role in enforcing their own rules” to prevent the spread of this type of material. “We know that lax enforcement has a disproportionate impact on women and, unfortunately, girls, who are the predominant targets of online harassment and abuse,” she said in a briefing with reporters.
The White House previously launched a task force to combat online harassment, Jean-Pierre said. But it was clear that it was a patchwork approach. “Of course there should be laws to address this issue,” she said.
Congress has criticized social media platforms for their moderation practices for years, but the body has been unable to agree on and adopt regulations. Support for Taylor Swift may be bipartisan, but it's not clear that will be enough to produce an actual bill.