'X is acting to ensure full compliance with UK law', PM says

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has told MPs that Elon Musk’s social media platform X is “acting to ensure full compliance with UK law”.

Speaking during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Starmer described X’s actions over recent days as “disgusting” and “shameful” after X’s AI tool, Grok, began being used to generate non-consensual sexualised images of other users without their consent.

Confirming Ofcom’s independent investigation would continue, Starmer reiterated the government’s earlier backing of the regulator’s powers to take action against X if deemed appropriate.

He said: “We will take the necessary measures. We will strengthen existing laws and prepare for legislation if it needs to go further, and Ofcom will continue its independent investigation.”

‘Anyone who defends platforms linked to sexual exploitation of children forfeits any right to give lectures about protecting women and girls,’ said Llinos Medi, Plaid Cymru MP for Ynys Mon.

The issue was raised twice during PMQs, with Nigel Farage, a vocal supporter of Musk, forced to watch as Plaid Cymru MP Llinos Medi, sitting in front of him, condemned the Reform leader, saying she was sickened by the AI images.

“Anyone who defends platforms linked to sexual exploitation of children forfeits any right to give lectures about protecting women and girls,” she said.

The Reform leader has previously described Grok’s non-consensual images as “horrible in every way”, but said the idea of banning X was “frankly appalling”, calling it an attack on free speech.

Starmer sided with Medi, saying it was “astonishing” that Farage continued to support Musk, calling both the generated images and Reform’s stance “disgusting”.

“X has to act, and if not, Ofcom has our full backing,” said the prime minister

Responding to the initial outcry, xAI had already restricted Grok’s image generation to paid X subscribers, a change Downing Street described as “insulting to victims of misogyny and sexual violence”.

Speaking earlier this week, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall claimed the platform was “monetising abuse”.

Despite the changes, non-consensual image generation was still possible on Grok’s app without a paid account.

Grok had already been banned in Malaysia and Indonesia, with calls for the UK government to assess its own use of the platform as well as policy concerning social media use.

Starmer himself has not posted on X since January 8, whilst continuing to do so on other social media platforms.

The government has maintained that the powers to address this issue are contained within its recently introduced Online Safety Act.

Strengthening these, Kendall announced on Monday that the UK would change the law to make it illegal to create non-consensual intimate images with AI, following concerns about their spread on social media.

The latest development comes as former Meta boss, and ex-deputy prime minister, Sir Nick Clegg called for tougher regulation of tech firms, branding social media a “poisoned chalice” and the rise of AI online a “negative development”.

The ex-deputy prime minister warned that engaging with “automated” content appears to be “much worse, particularly for younger people’s mental health” than interactions with other human beings.

He decried, “the recent advent of generative AI” as “doing something very, very profound, and in my view, potentially actually very negative when it comes to social media”.

The debate over X feeds more generally into recent calls for even tighter protections for young people, including banning under-16s from social media altogether – something that Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch backed on Sunday.

Musk, X’s billionaire owner, initially claimed the threats were part of an effort to censor X.

ITV News contacted X requesting a statement earlier this week and received the following three-word response: “Legacy media lies”.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Musk said he was not aware of “any naked underage images generated by Grok. Literally zero.”

He went on to blame “adversarial hacking” for inappropriate images being generated.

“When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state,” he said.

“There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”