Elon Musk labels UK ‘fascist’ over Grok image row
Responding to a graphic claiming that the UK has the most arrests in the world for social media comments, Musk shared: “Why is the UK government so fascist?” In separate posts hours earlier, Musk had said that Britain wanted to “suppress freedom of expression” and described the country as a “prison island”.
Formerly known as Twitter,
The UK watchdog responsible for reporting online child sexual abuse material to law enforcement said it had found “criminal” images on the dark web allegedly created by Grok.
The Internet Watch Foundation said the dark web images depicted “sexualized and topless” images of girls ages 11 to 13 and met the bar for action by law enforcement. xAI operates Grok and social media platform X.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to take action earlier this week, demanding Musk’s X urgently “get its act together” over the sexualized images. Technology Minister Liz Kendall said on Friday that media regulator Ofcom should use its “full statutory powers” and warned that the government could “block access to services in the UK if they refuse to comply with UK law”.
Punishing X risks incurring the wrath of the Trump administration, which has previously threatened retaliation against the European Union and others for its efforts to rein in US tech giants. Still, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said he had discussed the issue with US Vice President JD Vance, who earlier this week expressed concerns about how the technology was being used.
“I think he realized the gravity of how images of women and children could be manipulated in this way and realized how despicable and unacceptable it was, and I was sympathetic to that position,” Lammy told the Guardian newspaper after a trip to Washington. “And we actually got back in touch today about this very serious matter.”
