UK’s deputy prime minister raises X deepfake deluge with JD Vance

The flood of nonconsensual images on X, created using the platform’s generative AI chatbot feature Grok, attracted the attention of the U.K.’s media regulator Ofcom, which said it made “urgent contact” with X on Monday to determine whether an investigation under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act is warranted.

On Friday an Ofcom spokesperson said: “We urgently made contact on Monday and set a firm deadline of today to explain themselves, to which we have received a response. We’re now undertaking an expedited assessment as a matter of urgency and will provide further updates shortly.”

The U.S. administration has previously criticized the U.K.’s online safety laws, saying they limit freedom of expression.

The U.K. government said this week that Ofcom had its full backing, and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Thursday: “It’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting, and it’s not to be tolerated. X has got to get a grip of this, and Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this.”

“This is wrong, it’s unlawful, we’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table,” Starmer said.

In a statement issued on Sunday, X said: “We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”

On Friday X restricted the function which allows users to produce AI-generated material so that only paying subscribers can access it.  X said in a statement that limiting the feature to paid subscribers “helps ensure responsible use while we continue refining things.”

The U.K. government disagrees. “That simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said on Friday.

But it’s not only AI-generated images on X that are the problem, children’s protection watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation said on Wednesday it had found evidence of Grok generating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) which was being circulated on a dark web forum.

X’s CEO and owner, tech billionaire Elon Musk, has previously attacked the U.K.’s Labour government and was once a close adviser of President Donald Trump. Although Musk feuded with the Trump administration in the summer, by October there were signs his relationship with Trump was improving, and The Washington Post reported last month that Vance brokered a truce between Musk and Trump.

Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.