VOA文化艺术2024--X Blocks Taylor Swift Search after ‘Deepfake’ Image Spread

X Blocks Taylor Swift Search after ‘Deepfake’ Image Spread

　　The social media site X has blocked some searches for Taylor Swift in reaction to an online spread of pornographic deepfake images of the singer.

　　A "deepfake" is an image, sound recording¹, or video created to make it appear that people in it are saying or doing things that they did not say or do.

　　Attempts to search for her name without quotation² marks on the site Monday resulted in a failure message. It asked users to retry their search. "Don't fret³ — it's not your fault," also appeared.

　　However, putting quotation marks around her name permitted posts to show where her name appeared.

　　The images of Swift began spreading widely on X last week. She is now the most famous victim of a danger that technology companies and anti-abuse groups have struggled to fix.

　　"This is a temporary action and done with an abundance of caution as we prioritize safety on this issue," Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at X, said in a statement.

　　After the images began spreading, the singer's loyal fan base, called "Swifties," quickly came to her defense⁴. They launched a protective movement and flooded the site with more positive images of the singer. They used the hashtag #ProtectTaylorSwift on their posts. Some said they were reporting accounts that were sharing the deepfakes.

　　The deepfake-search group Reality Defender⁵ said it followed many posts of pornographic material of Swift. Many of the posts were found on X, formerly⁶ known as Twitter. Some images also made their way to Facebook and other social media sites.

　　The researchers found at least 20 different images created by artificial intelligence (AI).

　　Researchers have said the number of pornographic deepfakes has grown in the past few years. The increase continues as the technology used to produce such images has become more available and easier to use.

　　In 2019, a report released by the AI company DeepTrace Labs showed these images were mainly weaponized against women. Most of the victims, it said, were Hollywood actors and South Korean singers.

　　Words in This Story

　　pornographic – adj. showing or describing naked people or sex in a very open and direct way in order to cause sexual excitement

　　quotation mark – n. one of a pair of punctuation⁷ marks " " or ‘ ' that are used to show the beginning and the end of a quotation, to show that something is a title, to show that a word or phrase is being used in a special way, etc.

　　fret – v. to worry or be concerned

　　abundance – n. a large amount of something: an abundant amount of something

　　caution – n. carefulness in regard to danger

　　prioritize – v. to organize (things) so that the most important thing is done or dealt with first

1 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

2 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

3 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.

4 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

5 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

6 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

7 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。