A Labour MP has been left “baffled” by the government’s decision to continue posting on X after a Cabinet minister warned sexualised images created by Grok were “weapons of abuse”.
Charlotte Nichols asked the technology secretary to set out the “red line” that social media firms must cross before the government switches to alternative platforms, with technology secretary Liz Kendall suggesting in her response that there was merit in ministers “keeping a voice” on a site that is used so widely.
Her calls come as Keir Starmer issued an ultimatum to Elon Musk, announcing that the government will take “fast action” to deal with the abuses of Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) tool on the billionaire’s platform X.
Meanwhile, media watchdog Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether X has broken UK law, over reports that the site’s chatbot was used to create and share sexualised images of women and children.
Ms Kendall claimed users of the tool had generated images of women “tied up and gagged, with bruises, covered in blood and much, much more”, and Labour MP Jess Asato told MPs she was digitally “stripped into a bikini” without her consent.
“This is a government that is meant to practice what we preach on online safety and violence against women and girls,” Ms Nichols, the Warrington North MP who left X in 2024, told the Commons.
“The public, like me, are baffled by tough words from a government that continues to not just use but prioritise X for its communications. If non-consensual deepfake pornography and child sex abuse imagery isn’t the red line for the government to take its communications elsewhere, can I ask the Secretary of State, what is?”
Ms Kendall replied: “I completely agree with her that we need to get our views and voices out on a whole range of other platforms, and I and many ministers make this point regularly, and I think there’s much more we could do.”
The minister added: “I think there is an argument actually that the director-general of the BBC [Tim Davie] made about keeping a voice on a platform that’s used for so many people.
“But I do understand her concerns and we’ll keep this under review.”
Taking questions from the Commons Public Accounts Committee last week, Mr Davie said he had faced “quite a lot of pressure to remove the BBC from X”, formerly known as Twitter.
He said the broadcaster must deliver “quality information on these social media platforms, bring people in – and that is critical”.
Ms Asato, the MP for Lowestoft, told the Commons: “We’ve all seen just how AI has been used to humiliate and sexualise women with bullet holes, blood, gagging, bruising, even the horror of a Jewish woman being stripped of her clothes and placed at Auschwitz.
“I, like a number of colleagues over the weekend, have also had my own treatment and stripped into a bikini by AI on X – much less worse than many victims, but a reminder of what many thousands of women face daily.
“Will [Ms Kendall] therefore look at how the government can work with industry to introduce AI watermarking alongside ways of enabling users to mark that their pictures or videos should not be digitally manipulated without their consent?”
Ms Kendall said in her response that she was happy to meet with Ms Asato “to discuss all these ideas further”.
And Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark Neil Coyle labelled claims the government wanted to crack down on freedom of speech as “false”.
Ms Kendall said: “It’s not about restricting freedom of speech. It’s actually about enabling women to participate and not feel bullied and threatened so that they can participate.”
As pressure mounted on X, the prime minister issued a direct warning to Musk on Monday evening.
Addressing a meeting of backbenchers at the Parliamentary Labour Party, Sir Keir said: “The actions of Grok and X are absolutely disgusting and shameful.
“Protecting their abusive users, rather than the women and children who are being abused shows a total distortion of priorities.
“So let me be crystal clear, we won’t stand for it, because no matter how unstable or complex the world becomes, this government will be guided by its values. We’ll stand up for the vulnerable against the powerful.
“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.”
Grok, developed by another company founded by Mr Musk called xAI, launched a new advanced image generation feature in July last year.
But its use for creating nude deepfake images has become more widespread over the last few weeks.
Making an earlier statement, Ms Kendall said the government would this week bring into force part of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025, making it a “criminal offence to create or request the creation of non-consensual intimate images”.
She also said: “We’ve seen reports of photos being shared of women in bikinis, tied up and gagged, with bruises, covered in blood, and much, much more.
“Lives can and have been devastated by this content, which is designed to harass, torment and violate people’s dignity. They are not harmless images. They’re weapons of abuse, disproportionately aimed at women and girls, and they are illegal.”
Conservative shadow technology secretary Julia Lopez welcomed Ofcom’s probe, and said her party backed the government on nudification tools.
But she warned banning the platform would be an “extraordinarily serious move against a platform that can be used for good, for uncovering scandal, sparking democratic revolution, and allow day-to-day the free exchange of ideas”.
Source: UK Politics - www.independent.co.uk
