UK threatens action against X over sexualised AI images of women and children | Internet safety
Elon Musk’s
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said the government would fully support any action taken by media regulator Ofcom against X; this includes the possibility of the platform being blocked in the UK.
Kyle said Ofcom had received information that Ofcom had requested from
Technology secretary Liz Kendall, who said on Friday she expected action from Ofcom within days, will make a statement in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon.
Kyle told Sky News: “Let me be really clear about X: X is not doing enough to keep its customers safe online.”
In a later interview on BBC One’s Breakfast programme, Kyle said it was “appalling” that X had not properly tested Grok, given its capacity to manipulate images and its potential impact on women. “Just yesterday, I was sickened by the fact that I met a Jewish woman outside Auschwitz who found that a photo of herself in a bikini had been created by artificial intelligence and uploaded to the Internet,” she said.
“And I think the fact that there are people operating and designing these materials and putting them on the internet without checking the impact on their customers, service users and society as a whole is a real concern.”
After Ofcom requested information from X, the company provided it and the regulator was conducting what Kyle described as an “expedited investigation”.
He said: “They have a wide range of powers, ranging from heavy, heavy fines to banning [fully] “I stand behind Ofcom in its ability to do this.”
Any move to block X, which would require a court order, would likely provoke a significant backlash from Musk and the Donald Trump administration.
Musk, who frequently publishes far-right and ethno-nationalist content, has previously called on Britons to “fight back” against Keir Starmer’s government, which he portrays as hostile to freedom of expression.
On Sunday, a Trump administration official focused on freedom of expression, likening possible UK action against X to censorship in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
The UK government is “considering a Russia-style @X ban,” Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary of public diplomacy, said in one of several posts on the subject.
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom can force platforms to address such material and issue fines worth millions of pounds for non-compliance; The ultimate sanction is a court order that requires internet providers to block a site or app completely.
On Friday, X announced that the ability to create and edit images will be “limited to paying subscribers.” Downing Street described the move as unacceptable and said it turned an AI feature that only allowed the creation of illegal images into a premium service.
