X pauses Taylor Swift searches as deepfake explicit images spread

Elon Musk's social media platform X has blocked searches for Taylor Swift as pornographic deepfake images of the singer have circulated online.  

Attempts to search for her name on the site resulted in an error message and a prompt for users to retry their search, which added, “Don’t fret — it’s not your fault.”  

Searches for variations of her name such as “taylorswift” and “Taylor Swift AI” turned up the same error messages.  

Sexually explicit and abusive fake images of Swift began circulating widely last week on X, making her the most famous victim of a scourge that tech platforms and anti-abuse groups have struggled to fix.