LONDON — The U.K.’s data protection watchdog has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s companies X and xAI, over the use of personal data by the Grok AI system to generate a flood of sexualized deepfakes. In a statement on Tuesday, the Information Commissioner’s Office said the “reported creation and circulation of such content raises serious concerns under U.K. data protection law and presents a risk of significant potential harm to the public.” “These concerns relate to whether personal data has been processed lawfully, fairly and transparently, and whether appropriate safeguards were built into Grok’s design and deployment to prevent the generation of harmful manipulated images using personal data,” it said. The formal investigation follows an announcement last month that the ICO was seeking urgent information from X and xAI, amid widespread reports that Grok had been used to generate sexualized images of children and adults. William Malcolm, executive director for regulatory risk and innovation at the ICO, said the reports about Grok “raise deeply troubling questions about how people’s personal data has been used.” “Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm. This is particularly the case where children are involved,” Malcolm said. “Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public.” While the ICO’s investigation will focus on X and xAI’s compliance with U.K. data protection law, Malcolm said it would work closely with other regulators in the U.K. and abroad that are also investigating the issue. Ofcom, the U.K.’s communications regulator, opened a formal investigation into X last month under the Online Safety Act. That investigation is ongoing, Ofcom said on Tuesday. It is progressing “as a matter of urgency” but could take “months,” Ofcom added, noting that it must follow a “fair process” and “it would not be appropriate to provide a running commentary.” Ofcom also said it is not currently investigating xAI, which provides the standalone Grok AI tool, noting that “it can only take action on online harms covered by the [OSA].” The act does not apply to AI tools which do not involve searching the internet, interacting with other social media users, or generating pornography, it said. The U.K.’s Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has previously said she is assessing options to address “gaps” in the OSA. The European Commission announced its own probe into X last month, while French authorities searched X’s offices in Paris on Tuesday as part of their own criminal investigation into Grok, POLITICO reported. X did not immediately respond when contacted for comment.

LONDON — Pornhub will no longer be fully available in the U.K. from Feb. 2, its parent company Aylo announced Tuesday, citing the consequences of Britain’s Online Safety Act. Aylo said it made an effort to comply after the act’s Children’s Codes came into force last summer, requiring adult sites to have highly effective age-assurance. But visitors — both adults and under-18s — are flocking to non-compliant sites en masse, Alexzandra Kekesi, vice president of brand and community at Aylo, said. Despite sharing these findings with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the U.K.’s communications watchdog Ofcom, “we’re still continuing to see more of the same,” she said. Aylo says users who go through age assurance prior to the Feb. 2 cut-off date will still be able to access the site. During a press conference, Aylo’s lawyers were keen to argue that the blame for its decision should be put at the government’s feet, rather than Ofcom’s, and argued only device-based age-assurance by the likes of Google, Apple, and Microsoft would solve the problem. “This law, not our regulator, this law by its very nature is pushing both adults and children alike to the cesspools of the internet, to the most dangerous material possible,” Solomon Friedman, a partner at Ethical Capital Partners and a lawyer representing Aylo said. “And while there [were] six months by Aylo of good faith effort to be part of this ecosystem, to gather data and share it with the government, the data now really speaks for itself. This law not only is not protecting children, it’s putting children and adults in greater danger online,” he added.

LONDON — The U.K. government’s upcoming ban on nudification apps won’t apply to general-purpose AI tools like Elon Musk’s Grok, according to Tech Secretary Liz Kendall. The ban will “apply to applications that have one despicable purpose only: to use generative AI to turn images of real people into fake nude pictures and videos without their permission,” Kendall said in a letter to Science, Innovation and Technology committee chair Chi Onwurah published Wednesday. Grok, which is made by Musk’s AI company xAI but is also accessible inside his social media platform X, has sparked a political uproar because it has been used to create a wave of sexualized nonconsensual deepfakes, many targeting women and some children. But Grok can be used to generate a wide range of images and has other functionalities, including text generation, so does not have the sole purpose of generating sexualized or nude images. The U.K. government announced its plan to ban nudification apps in December, before the Grok controversy took off, but Kendall has given it as an example of ways that the government is cracking down on AI-generated intimate image abuse. Kendall said the nudification ban will be put into effect using the Crime and Policing Bill, which is currently passing through committee stage. The Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology did not immediately respond when contacted by POLITICO for comment. The U.K.’s media regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into X on Monday to determine whether the platform has complied with its duties under the Online Safety Act to protect British users from illegal content. The U.K, government has said Ofcom has its full support to use whatever enforcement tools it deems fit, which could include blocking X in the U.K. or issuing a fine.

LONDON — The U.S. Department of State’s Sarah B. Rogers says “nothing is off the table” if the U.K. government makes good on its threat to ban Elon Musk’s X over concerns about a deluge of AI-generated sexualized deepfakes on the platform. “I would say from America’s perspective … nothing is off the table when it comes to free speech,” Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, told GB News in an interview which aired in the U.K. in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “Let’s wait and see what Ofcom does and we’ll see what America does in response,” she added. Rogers, an appointee of President Donald Trump, has repeatedly criticized European efforts to crack down on hate speech. She was involved in last month’s State Department decision to sanction former European Commissioner Thierry Breton and four other European nationals involved in efforts to curb the spread of disinformation. At least one lawmaker aligned with Trump has also weighed in on behalf of the Elon Musk-owned platform. U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, said last week she was drafting legislation to sanction the U.K. if X is banned in the country. In her GB News interview Rogers accused the British government of wanting “the ability to curate a public square, to suppress political viewpoints it dislikes.” X has a “political valence that the British government is antagonistic to, doesn’t like, and that’s what’s really going on,” she added. The U.S. embassy in London did not immediately respond when contacted by POLITICO for comment. Ofcom, the U.K.’s online safety watchdog, is currently investigating whether X failed to comply with its duties under the Online Safety Act by allowing its Grok AI chatbot to create and distribute non-consensual intimate images, including potential child sexual abuse material. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told the House of Commons on Monday that Ofcom has the government’s backing to use the full extent of its powers, which include imposing financial penalties of up to £18 million or 10 percent of a company’s worldwide revenue, and in the most serious cases seeking a court order to block X from functioning in the U.K. “This is not, as some would claim, about restricting freedom of speech, which is something that I and the whole Government hold very dear. It is about tackling violence against women and girls. It is about upholding basic British values of decency and respect, and ensuring that the standards that we expect offline are upheld online. It is about exercising our sovereign power and responsibility to uphold the laws of this land,” she said. At a behind-closed-doors meeting with Labour lawmakers on Monday Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “If X cannot control Grok, we will — and we’ll do it fast because if you profit from harm and abuse, you lose the right to self regulate.” POLITICO reported last week that Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy raised the issue of Grok with Vice President Vance, and Lammy later told The Guardian that Vance had agreed the deepfaked images spreading on X were “unacceptable.”

LONDON — U.K. ministers are warning Elon Musk’s X it faces a ban if it doesn’t get its act together. But outlawing the social media platform is easier said than done. The U.K.’s communications regulator Ofcom on Monday launched a formal investigation into a deluge of non-consensual sexualized deepfakes produced by X’s AI chatbot Grok amid growing calls for action from U.K. politicians. It will determine whether the creation and distribution of deepfakes on the platform, which have targeted women and children, constitutes a breach of the company’s duties under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA).   U.K. ministers have repeatedly called for Ofcom, the regulator tasked with policing social media platforms, to take urgent action over the deepfakes. U.K. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall on Friday offered her “full support” to the U.K. regulator to block X from being accessed in the U.K., if it chooses to. “I would remind xAI that the Online Safety Act Includes the power to block services from being accessed in the U.K., if they refuse to comply with U.K. law. If Ofcom decide to use those powers they will have our full support,” she said in a statement. The suggestion has drawn Musk’s ire. The tech billionaire branded the British government “fascist” over the weekend, and accused it of “finding any excuse for censorship.”   With Ofcom testing its new regulatory powers against one of the most high-profile tech giants for the first time, it is hard to predict what happens next. NOT GOING NUCLEAR — FOR NOW   Ofcom has so far avoided its smash-glass option. Under the OSA it could seek a court order blocking “ancillary” services, like those those processing subscription payments on X’s behalf, and ask internet providers to block X from operating in the U.K.   Taking that route would mean bypassing a formal investigation, but that is generally considered a last resort according to Ofcom’s guidance. To do so, Ofcom would need to prove that risk of harm to U.K. users is particularly great.  Before launching its investigation Monday, the regulator made “urgent contact” with X on Jan. 5, giving the platform until last Friday to respond. Ofcom stressed the importance of “due process” and of ensuring its investigations are “legally robust and fairly decided.”   LIMITED REACH   The OSA only covers U.K. users. It’s a point ministers have been keen to stress amid concerns its interaction with the U.S. First Amendment, which guarantees free speech, could become a flashpoint in trade negotiations with Washington. It’s not enough for officials or ministers to believe X has failed to protect users generally.   The most egregious material might not even be on X. Child sexual abuse charity the Internet Watch Foundation said last week that its analysts had found what appeared to be Grok-produced Child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on a dark web forum, rather than X itself — so it’s far from self-evident that Ofcom taking the nuclear option against X would ever have been legally justified.   X did not comment on Ofcom’s investigation when contacted by POLITICO, but referred back to a statement issued on Jan. 4 about the issue of deepfakes on the platform. “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,” the statement said. BIG TEST   The OSA came into force last summer, and until now Ofcom’s enforcement actions have focused on pornography site providers for not implementing age-checks.  Online safety campaigners have argued this indicates Ofcom is more interested in going after low-hanging fruit than challenging more powerful tech companies. “It has been striking to many that of the 40+ investigations it has launched so far, not one has been directed at large … services,” the online safety campaign group the Molly Rose Foundation said in September.   That means the X investigation is the OSA’s first big test, and it’s especially thorny because it involves an AI chatbot. The Science, Innovation and Technology committee wrote in a report published last summer that the legislation does not provide sufficient protections against generative AI, a point Technology Secretary Liz Kendall herself conceded in a recent evidence session.  POLITICAL RISKS  If Ofcom concludes X hasn’t broken the law there are likely to be calls from OSA critics, both inside and outside Parliament, to return to the drawing board. It would also put the government, which has promised to act if Ofcom doesn’t, in a tricky spot.  The PM’s spokesperson on Monday described child sexual abuse imagery as “the worst crimes imaginable.” Ofcom could also conclude X has broken the law, but decide against imposing sanctions, according to its enforcement guidance. The outcome of Ofcom’s investigation will be watched closely by the White House and is fraught with diplomatic peril for the U.K. government, which has already been criticized for implementing the new online safety law by Donald Trump and his allies. Foreign Secretary David Lammy raised the Grok issue with U.S. Vice President JD Vance last week, POLITICO reported.  But other Republicans are readying for a geopolitical fight: GOP Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a member of the U.S. House foreign affairs committee, said she was drafting legislation to sanction the U.K. if X does get blocked. 

LONDON — The U.K.’s communications watchdog Ofcom said Monday it has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X over reports that its AI chatbot Grok is producing non-consensual sexualized deepfakes of women and children. The investigation will ascertain whether the platform has complied with its duties under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act to protect British users from illegal content. “There have been deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images of people — which may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography — and sexualized images of children that may amount to child sexual abuse material,” Ofcom said in a press release. This is a developing story.

LONDON – Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy raised the recent flood of AI-generated sexualized images of women and children on X with JD Vance when the two met in Washington yesterday, two people familiar with the meeting told POLITICO. One person familiar with the meeting said that Lammy raised the issue with Vance, explained the U.K.’s position, and repeated what Prime Minister Keir Starmer said about it. A second person familiar with the meeting said it had gone well, and that Vance seemed receptive to Lammy’s points. Both people were granted anonymity to speak freely about the meeting, which they weren’t authorized to discuss publicly. Vance’s team didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. A U.K. government spokesperson declined to comment. 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.

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer attacked X’s decision to make its controversial AI image generation feature only available to users with paid subscriptions. In recent weeks X’s AI image generation feature has been used to produce a flood of nonconsensual sexualized images, including of women and children, drawing condemnation from lawmakers around the world. 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. “It’s not a solution. In fact, it’s insulting to victims of misogyny and sexual violence. What it does prove is that X can move swiftly when it wants to do so,” they added. X has been approached for comment. Prime Minister Starmer said on Thursday that the issue of sexualized deepfakes proliferating on X was “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.” The U.K.’s media regulator Ofcom said on Monday it was in urgent contact with X to ascertain whether an investigation under the Online Safety Act is warranted.

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday vowed to take action against Elon Musk’s social media platform X after its Grok artificial intelligence system produced a flood of non-consensual sexually explicit deepfakes that included depictions of minors. “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,” Starmer said in a broadcast interview after thousands of nude deepfakes were published on X. “This is wrong, it’s unlawful, we’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table,” he told the Greatest Hits Radio. “We will take action on this because it is simply not tolerable,” he added. Earlier this week the U.K.’s communications regulator Ofcom said it had made “urgent contact” with X to establish whether there are grounds to investigate the platform under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act. Technology Secretary Liz Kendall told MPs last year that current U.K. online safety laws do not cover all generative AI chatbots and she is looking at whether new legislation is required. The Information Commissioner’s Office, the U.K. data watchdog, confirmed yesterday that it too is in touch with X amid concerns people’s personal data is being misused. Musk has historically been highly critical of Starmer. Last January the tech billionaire made a series of unsubstantiated claims about the British PM’s role as chief prosecutor in the grooming gang scandal, and in summer 2024 suggested “civil war is inevitable” in the U.K.

LONDON — U.K. communications watchdog Ofcom is looking into whether X may be in breach of the Online Safety Act following a series of reports that its AI chatbot Grok generated sexually explicit images of children. Ofcom is also in touch with X about instances where Grok was used to generate non-consensual images of women naked. An Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator had made “urgent contact” with X and xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company which owns X, “to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the U.K.” “Based on their response we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation,” the spokesperson said. X’s safety team said in a statement published over the weekend that the platform “take[s] 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.”