(Hypebot) – If this matter were to go to court, the docket might become Taylor Swift v. Donald Trump. Entertainment and intellectual property attorney Wallace Collins wrote that Swift “clearly has credible grounds to take action against Donald Trump’s false and misleading social media posts.”
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Taylor Swift has so far remained silent after Donald Trump posted artificial intelligence-generated images of herself and her fans on his Truth social platform.
Taylor Swift clearly has solid reasons to take action against Donald Trump’s false and misleading social media posts. Donald Trump posted several artificial intelligence-generated images on his own Truth social platform that falsely suggested Taylor Swift was endorsing his presidential bid.
The post included several photos of women wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Swifties for Trump” printed on the front. Some of the photos were apparently generated by artificial intelligence, including several originally posted by satirical websites.
The most striking photo, however, shows Taylor Swift herself, dressed in a World War II-era recruiting poster style Uncle Sam, and sending a clear message: “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” at the end of the post At the top, Trump himself responds to the apparent show of support: “I’ll take that!”
Donald Trump posted fake images generated by artificial intelligence.
The photos sparked understandable outrage among the superstar’s legions of fans, who have long been vocal critics of the former president. Swift, who endorsed Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris in 2020, although she has yet to endorse a 2024 candidate, blasted Trump for “inciting white supremacy and racism” and urged Her fans voted him out
Trump’s social media posts could trigger Swift to take a variety of actions. On its face, Trump’s false endorsement posts clearly violated Swift’s right of publicity, the legal right to control how others use your name, image and likeness. While the explosion of artificial intelligence tools makes it easier to convincingly imitate real people, lawmakers are scrambling to empower individuals like Swift to better protect their publicity rights. The federal Counterfeiting Act currently being debated in Congress makes it illegal to publish “digital reproductions” of another person’s likeness (including sounds or images) without their explicit consent.
Trump’s post, which showed an AI-generated reproduction of an actual image of Swift without her consent, would almost certainly violate new federal law. Yet even without the No Counterfeit Act, states across the country have protected publicity rights and could provide Swift with grounds to sue Trump and his campaign. Swift may also have credible grounds to file a defamation lawsuit against Trump, claiming that false endorsements of the president damaged her reputation. However, such litigation could be costly and time-consuming, and Trump has potential defenses, such as pointing the finger at the people who originally created the images or arguing that his posts were free speech protected by the First Amendment.
Rather than embark on that long and winding road to litigation, Swift’s best way to fight false endorsements may not be in court, but in the court of public opinion. Swift should counter Trump’s false endorsement with her own legitimate endorsement, broadcast via social media to her millions of loyal fans, many of whom are of voting age. This would be a remedy far beyond what any court could grant, and would likely do far more harm to Trump than any judge could do by issuing a legal ruling through a bench.
Wallace Collins is a New York-based entertainment lawyer and intellectual property attorney with more than 30 years of experience in the music, film, television and emerging technology fields. He handles many digital media matters, including issues arising from artificial intelligence. Before earning his law degree from Fordham Law School, he was a songwriter and recording artist for Epic Records. www.wallacecollins.com
