ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Deepfake images of Taylor Swift have sparked outrage and legal concerns to the point that social media platform X temporarily banned searches of the artist.
“No one should have to go through it,” Tina Meier, executive director of the Megan Meier Foundation in St. Charles, said.
The foundation works to end bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide through education and intervention.
Meier hopes parents will talk with their kids about how much harm deepfakes can cause. She also reminds parents to be ready to support victims instead of blaming them.
“We have to make sure that teens and parents understand how to be able to best support kids if, by chance, this happens to them,” Meier said.
The deep-fake images of Swift could lead to a change in Missouri laws.
State Rep. Adam Schwadron, R-St. Charles, has introduced a bill he’s called the “Taylor Swift Act.” He said that if passed, the legislation would create criminal penalties and provide civil recourse for victims.
“I filed this legislation because this is a real and growing concern amongst the people of Missouri,” Schwadron said.
Joel Schwartz, a prominent criminal defense attorney based in Clayton, said there are already laws addressing pornography. He adds that tracking down the source of a deepfake can pose a challenge.
“There will continue to be methods to allude, go around and avert detection from whoever is creating these images simply because the Internet can be so incredibly anonymous,” he said.
Schwartz also believes any efforts to simply criminalize fake images will run into First Amendment challenges.
