UK media regulator investigating Elon Musk’s X after outcry over sexualised AI images
The UK media watchdog has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the use of the Grok AI tool to manipulate images of women and children by removing their clothes.Ofcom has acted after a public and political outcry over a deluge of sexual images appearing on the platform, created by Musk’s Grok, which is integrated with X.The regulator is investigating X under 2023’s Online Safety Act (OSA), which carries a range of possible punishments for breaches, including a UK ban of apps and websites for the most serious abuses.Ofcom said it would pursue the investigation as a “matter of the highest priority”, while Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, said the regulator had the government’s full backing.Ofcom said: “Reports of Grok being used to create and share illegal nonconsensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material on X have been deeply concerning.
“Platforms must protect people in the UK from content that’s illegal in the UK, and we won’t hesitate to investigate where we suspect companies are failing in their duties, especially where there’s a risk of harm to children.“We’ll progress this investigation as a matter of the highest priority, while ensuring we follow due process.As the UK’s independent online safety enforcement agency, it’s important we make sure our investigations are legally robust and fairly decided.”Speaking to MPs in the Commons, Kendall said: “The content which has circulated on X is vile.It’s not just an affront to decent society, it is illegal.
”She added: “X does not have to wait for the Ofcom investigation to conclude – they can choose to act sooner to ensure this abhorrent and illegal material cannot be shared on their platform.“If they do not, Ofcom will have the backing of this government to use the full powers which parliament has given them … this includes the power to issue fines of up to 10% of a company’s worldwide qualifying revenue and, in the most serious cases, Ofcom can apply for a court order to stop UK users accessing the site.”She added that ministers would also bring into force a new law that would make it illegal to create nonconsensual intimate images, as well as to share them.Campaigners last week accused ministers of dragging their heels over enforcing the new law, which was originally passed last June.Sharing intimate image abuse online is illegal under the OSA, which also requires that pornography is age gated.
Companies are also required to have systems in place to prevent child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from appearing and to take it down quickly if it is posted on a platform,Ofcom said it had “urgently” made contact with X about its concerns last Monday,Having considered X’s response about the steps it has taken to comply with the act, Ofcom said it had opened a formal investigation after an “expedited” assessment carried out as a “matter of urgency”,The watchdog is focusing on whether X has breached the act in the following ways:Failing to assess the risk of people seeing illegal content on the platform,Not taking appropriate steps to prevent users from viewing illegal content such as intimate image abuse and CSAM.
Not taking down illegal material quickly.Not protecting users from breaches of privacy law.Failing to assess the risk X may pose to children.Not using effective age checking for pornography.Grok has been integrated into X, and an update of the AI tool has allowed users to prompt it to alter clothed images of women and children by making them appear in bikinis and sexually suggestive poses.
Ofcom has a range of options in terms of punishments under the act including, in extreme cases, effectively blocking an app or website by applying to a court for “business disruption measures” – such as requiring internet service providers to block access to a site in the UK.On Friday the government said it would support Ofcom if it decided X should be effectively banned.Ofcom said it would gather evidence on whether a breach had occurred.If it decides a breach has taken place, it will announce this in a provisional decision before making a final ruling.The regulator did not give exact details on how long the investigation would take.
Jess Asato, a Labour MP and campaigner against AI nudification, said the abuse was still happening to her on X as of Monday morning.She said explicit and degrading images were being created using the Grok app – which is also available separately from X – and other AI apps and posted on X, because she was speaking against Musk’s platform.“It’s still happening to me and being posted on X because I speak up about it,” she said.“Thankfully it’s just bikinis, no one has properly nudified me yet.Just this morning someone has made me a tradwife with a massive pregnant tummy.
“It’s like they’re saying, this is where you should be, this is your role, you should be a baby birthing machine.This has disturbed me, weirdly more than the bikini pictures.”Some MPs have been pushing for the government to exit the platform in protest, but Kendall said ministers were not planning to take such action – though she added that it remained an option in future.“With 19 million people on X in this country, and more than a quarter of them saying that they use it as their primary source of news, our views – and often simply the facts – need to be heard wherever possible,” she said.
HMRC admits 71% wrongly targeted in child benefit fraud crackdown
Seven in 10 parents who had child benefit suspended in an HMRC fraud crackdown last year were in fact legitimate beneficiaries who had not emigrated, the tax authority has revealed.The chief executive of HMRC, John-Paul Marks, told the Treasury select committee that 71% of those targeted, higher than the 63% previously admitted, were in error.Marks said that “just under 5%” of the 23,700 parents who lost their child benefit were in fact fraudulent claimants.Meg Hillier, the chair of the committee, accused HMRC of causing unnecessary “pain” to innocent parents and making an “egregious error” in assuming parents who had used Dublin airport to return to Northern Ireland had emigrated.The admission shows a major system failure by HMRC, which had told the government before rolling out the scheme in July that it could save up to £350m in benefit fraud over five years
Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?
The explosive popularity of the gay hockey TV drama reveals women’s desire for sex and romance without violence or hierarchyThe first time gay hockey romance crossed Mary’s radar, she was warned off it. A 64-year-old non-profit executive from Toronto, Mary recalled mentioning the Canadian author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series to her son, a twentysomething queer writer and fellow hockey obsessive, a few years ago.“I said: ‘Have you heard of these books?’ and he said: ‘Yeah.’ I said: ‘Should I read these books?’ And he said: ‘No. They’re not for you
‘He tried so hard to get help’: the tragic results of NHS right-to-choose for ADHD patients
When Leigh White remembers her brother Ryan, she thinks of a boy of extraordinary ability who “won five scholarships at 11” including a coveted place at Bancroft’s, a private school in London. He was, she said, “super bright, witty, personable, generous and kind”.Ryan killed himself on 12 May 2024. A report written after his death acknowledged significant shortcomings in the support he received while seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Like many people the Guardian spoke to, he followed the “right to choose” pathway, whereby patients can pick a private provider anywhere in the country for assessment, diagnosis and initial treatment
Death on the inside: as a prison officer, I saw how the system perpetuates violence
There are hotspots for violence in prison. The exercise yard, the showers. There are peak times, too. Mealtimes and association periods are particularly volatile.But first thing in the morning is not when you expect to hear an alarm bell
The pulmonaut: how James Nestor turned breathing into a 3m copy bestseller
It is the most essential thing we do - yet many of us arguably breathe badly. The author of Breath explains how that can be changedIn the last stages of writing his book, Breath, James Nestor was stressed. “Which was ironic when writing a book about breathing patterns and mellowing out,” he says. The book was late; he’d spent his advance and was haemorrhaging even more money on extra research that was taking him off in new, potentially interesting, directions – was it really necessary, he wondered, to go to Paris to look at old skulls buried in catacombs beneath the city? (It was.)Then a couple of months before the book’s May 2020 publication date, the Covid pandemic hit, and Nestor was advised to wait it out
Four NHS trusts in England declare critical incidents after ‘surge’ in A&E admissions
Four NHS hospital trusts in England have declared critical incidents after a “surge” in A&E admissions driven in large part by patients with flu, norovirus and respiratory viruses.Three trusts in Surrey and one in Kent sounded the alarm after a “surge in complex attendances to A&E departments”.A critical incident, which is usually declared when A&E departments are not able to necessarily deliver all of their services safely, is the highest alert level used by the NHS and allows bosses to take immediate steps to create capacity.NHS Surrey Heartlands said the situation at three hospital trusts – Royal Surrey NHS foundation trust, Epsom and St Helier university hospitals NHS trust and Surrey and Sussex healthcare NHS trust – was “exacerbated by increases in flu and norovirus cases and an increase in staff sickness”.It added that the “recent cold weather front has also impacted on more frail patients needing to be admitted to hospital”
UK politics: Tories call for block on Chinese super-embassy amid claims of hidden chamber near sensitive cables – as it happened
Wes breaks cover to challenge Keir – without even mentioning him | John Crace
End of western alliance means UK must be bolder, says Chatham House director
New proposed Ukip logo compared to iron cross used by Nazi regime
UK announces ‘full and further sanctions’ amid Iran killings and arrests
Home Office TikTok account posting deportation footage accused of turning ‘brutality into clickbait’