from the karma Department
We’ve written a lot about Taylor Swift’s various adventures in the realm of intellectual property law and the internet in general. That in itself isn’t particularly surprising, given her sheer popularity and presence in pop culture. What was somewhat interesting about her as a techdirt subject, however, was how she straddled the line between being the victim of overly aggressive intellectual property enforcement and being the perpetrator of it. All of this is to say that Swift is familiar with negative consequences in the digital realm, and is also nothing new to being the legal aggressor.
So this post is meant to be something of an open letter to your Swift, to stop listening to the half of the internet that is clamoring for her to sue Donald Trump for sharing some AI-generated images on social media that falsely suggest Swift supports him. First, the facts.
Taylor Swift has not endorsed a presidential candidate this election cycle, but former President Donald Trump says he accepts the superstar’s lack of support.
Trump posted “I accept!” on his Truth Social account, along with a carousel of (Swift) images – at least some of which appear to be AI-generated.
One of the AI-manipulated photos shows Swift as Uncle Sam with the caption “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” The other photos show Swift fans wearing T-shirts that read “Swifties for Trump.”
As the quote notes, not all of the images were AI-generated “fakes.” At least one of them was of a very real woman who is a huge Swift fan and was wearing a “Swifties for Trump” shirt. There is also a social media campaign for supporters from the other side of the aisle, “Swifties for Kamala.” None of this is really a big deal, of course. But the images shared by Trump on Truth Social implied far more than a community of her fans who like him too. So much so, in fact, that he seemed to accept an endorsement that never existed.
In case you didn’t notice, there’s a label right below the image in the top left that clearly identifies the article and accompanying images as “satire.” Also, the image of Swift pulling the Uncle Sam number to recruit people for Trump is obviously not directly from Swift or her people. Although she hasn’t endorsed a candidate this election cycle (more on that in a moment), Swift endorsed Biden in 2020 with some particularly biting comments about why she wouldn’t vote for Trump.
Trump spreading misleading information on social media is now about as newsworthy as the fact that the sun will set tonight. However, it’s worth noting that social media exploded in response, with a ton of people online urging Swift to “get her legal team involved” or “sue Trump!” And that’s something she absolutely shouldn’t do. Some media outlets have even suggested that Swift should sue under Tennessee’s new ELVIS Act, which prohibits the use of anyone’s voice or image without their permission and has never been tested in court.
Trump’s post could be enough to give Swift’s team grounds to sue Trump under Tennessee’s Ensuring Likeness Voice and Image Security Act (ELVIS Act). The law protects against “virtually any unauthorized imitation of a person’s voice or appearance,” says Joseph Fishman, a law professor at Vanderbilt University.
“It doesn’t matter whether an image was created by an AI or not, and it doesn’t matter whether or not it actually confuses people,” Fishman said. “In fact, the image doesn’t even have to be fake – it could be a real photo, as long as the person distributing it knows that the subject of the photo has not authorized its use.”
Please don’t do that. First, it probably won’t work. Suing based on an untested law that most likely violates First Amendment protections is a great way to waste money. Plus, Trump probably didn’t create the images and is simply sharing or amplifying them. That will make it difficult to hold him liable.
But the bigger point here is that Swift really only needs to respond here with her own political support or thoughts if she wants to. It’s not like she didn’t do that last election cycle. If she’s upset about what Trump did and wants to punish him, she can solve that with more speeches: her own. Heck, there aren’t many people out there who can reach an audience that rivals Donald Trump’s… but she almost certainly can!
Simply point out to her that what he shared was wrong. Mention, if she wants, that she voted against him last time. If she wants, she may want to support another candidate. Or she can just leave it at a scathing rejection, like:
“The images Donald Trump has shared suggest that I support him. I do not. In fact, I have not given him permission to use my image in any way and ask that he not do so in the future. On the other hand, Donald Trump has not been much of a snob when it comes to seeking a woman’s consent in the past, so I am not getting my hopes up too much.”
Filed under: 1st Amendment to the US Constitution, AI, deepfakes, Donald Trump, Elvis Act, recommendations, image rights, personal rights, satire, Taylor Swift
