DOXED TO TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT [and in Germany to Football / Soccer Player Manuel Peter Neuer]
NYC 1.12pm
A Taylor Swift fan's 'seemingly ranch' tweet was a fun internet moment. Until brands ruined it. Taylor Alison Swift becomes the first artist to score a #1 hit on Billboard’s Radio Songs chart in each of the last three decades. The NFL is currently being held hostage by Taylor Alison Swift and she's going to use it to torch the radical misogynistic right and begin the age of the #Swifties with a simple voter registration drive that flips 50 house seats with GenZ 25 year-old House members. But in the wake of hype Taylor Alison Swift and Travis Michael Kelce, some scary doxed for ‘queen of ERAs.’
A viral Taylor Swift fan TikTok account that was using off-the-shelf facial recognition tech to unmask ordinary people to its millions of viewers without consent has deleted its dozens of videos.
In Germany, the management of soccer / football superstar Manuel Peter Neuer is considering taking legal action against the creators of this AI generated video of the goalkeeper advertising for a scam app, using domestic law [‘German Network Enforcement Act / German Network Enforcement Law [NEA / NEL] / Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz].
about vaccine and nobel, here
It is not exactly clear why the account owner deleted the videos, but it appears this was a decision by the user and not a TikTok content moderation decision. TikTok previously told 404 Media the account did not violate the social network’s terms because it believed the account was only using public information. This was despite one content moderation expert pointing to TikTok’s own anti-doxing policy, and how this kind of disclosure raises the risk of harm against targeted people.
The videos’ removal highlights that in an age where now anyone can use powerful facial recognition technology on whoever they decide to, social media networks are not necessarily the entities that are going to stop abuse of such tech. Instead, it may be up to journalists, civil society, and platform users themselves to engage on what might become the cultural norm around this practice.
“I'm definitely glad the video of me and others has been taken down!” Matthew, one of the victims of the account, told 404 Media on Monday. “I'm guessing they got a taste of their own medicine and didn't like being in the spotlight against their wishes,” he added, referring to the account owner.
Do you know anything else about abuse of facial recognition technology? I would love to hear from you. Using a non-work device, you can message me securely on Signal at +44 20 8133 5190.
On Sunday, the TikTok account wiped all of its videos which unmasked specific people. The account’s uploads dated back to at least August. The account then changed its username and uploaded a new profile photo and two videos that are not related to using facial recognition technology on strangers. Instead, they appear to show people partying.
“Wtf… what happened to [account name]???” one person wrote in a comment below one of the new videos.
“The owner of this account found the most handsome boys in the videos 🥲,” another commenter lamented about the account changes.
The account did not respond to a request for comment sent to a second TikTok account listed as its backup, or to an Instagram direct message.
Before removing its videos, the account regularly uploaded videos that followed a pattern: first, the account either picked people to unmask from viral videos or took requests from its own commenters. It then used consumer access facial recognition tools such as Pimeyes to search for those targets, and in many cases found the person’s name and sometimes employer. It then used that information to find the victim’s social media account and put that on blast to millions of people who have liked the videos.
404 Media spoke to multiple victims of the account, and those conversations echoed one general point—this behavior showed them just how exposed we all potentially are simply by existing in public. A combination of the TikTok account’s activity, what those victims said, and TikTok’s belief the account doesn’t violate terms of use show that now all it takes is one random person on the internet to decide to target you and lead a crowd in your direction.
Matthew, who was targeted by the account while on his honeymoon, said he “felt a bit violated really.” In his case, the account identified both his employer and personal Instagram account. He said he received more than 2,000 follow requests and dozens of direct messages after the TikTok account used facial recognition tech to identify him.
Eli Lloyd, another target, said they initially felt flattered before “that promptly gave way to worry.”
Robin, a third victim, said they were “not surprised” that the unmasking was happening. “We live in a digital era, and if you put your photos on the web, it's expected to be found somehow,” he added.
TikTok acknowledged a request for comment on the account changes but did not provide a response in time for publication. Ben Rathe, a spokesperson for the platform, previously said that TikTok reviewed the account and decided it does not violate the social network’s terms of use. This was because, in TikTok’s eyes, the account was only using publicly available information.
Danielle Citron, a Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law at the University of Virginia School of Law who has spoken to social media companies about these issues, previously said “TikTok’s TOS [terms of service] bans doxing and this strikes me as precisely the kind of disclosure of public information that breaks context and raises risk of harm—economic and physical as well as mental.”
The profusion of user data on Lark alarmed some TikTok employees, especially since ByteDance workers in China and elsewhere could easily see the material, according to internal reports and four current and former employees. Since at least July 2021, several security employees have warned ByteDance and TikTok executives about risks tied to the platform, according to the documents and the current and former workers.
“Should Beijing-based employees be owners of groups that contain secret” data of users, one TikTok employee asked in an internal report last July.
TikTok has played down the access that its China-based workers have to U.S. user data. In a congressional hearing in March, TikTok’s chief executive, Shou Chew, said that such data was mainly used by engineers in China for “business purposes” and that the company had “rigorous data access protocols” for protecting users. He said much of the user information available to engineers was already public.
The internal reports and communications from Lark appear to contradict Mr. Chew’s statements. Lark data from TikTok was also stored on servers in China as of late last year, the four current and former employees said.
The documents seen by The Times included dozens of screenshots of reports, chat messages and employee comments on Lark, as well as video and audio of internal communications, spanning 2019 to 2022.
Alex Haurek, a TikTok spokesman, said they did not accurately depict “how we handle protected U.S. user data, nor the progress we’ve made under Project Texas.”
He added that TikTok was in the process of deleting U.S. user data that it collected before June 2022, when it changed the way it handled information about American users and began sending that data to U.S.-based servers owned by a third party rather than those owned by TikTok or ByteDance.
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