Reporting Image-Based Sexual Violence: Deepfakes, #ProtectTaylorSwift, and Platform Responsibility

Abstract

When in early 2024 nonconsensual pornographic deepfakes of international pop superstar Taylor Swift were circulated on the social media platform X, fans quickly started to report them so that they would be taken down. They also flooded the platform and corresponding hashtags with media to drown out the deepfakes and make them harder to find. X ultimately temporarily blocked all searches for Taylor Swift. Drawing on in-depth semi-structured interviews with fans of Taylor Swift – so-called Swifties – this paper presents a case study of the incident. We discuss the case, individual reporting experiences, concerns around deepfakes, and the question of platform vs. user responsibility for addressing online harms. We provide empirical evidence on the impactful role that fans can play in platform governance when they coordinate and unleash collective online action. Outside of fandom, our findings have implications for reporting and flagging as a form of civic responsibility online.

Keywords: Deepfakes, sexual violence, Taylor Swift, platform governance, collective action, reporting, flagging