The United Kingdom plans to bring into force a law that criminalizes the creation of non-consensual sexualized images, including through Grok, the chatbot within Elon Musk’s X application, following the app’s deepfake scandal of the last few weeks.
“This means individuals are committing a criminal offence if they create—or seek to create—such content—including on X—and anyone who does this should expect to face the full extent of the law,” Technology Secretary Liz Kendal announced in the House of Commons Monday, adding that the government would work to also make it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create these nonconsensual images.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]The move came just hours after the Office of Communications (Ofcom)—the country’s independent regulator for the communications industry—announced that it will be investigating X and the thousands of pornographic images generated by Grok that flooded the app, including sexualized images of what appear to be minors. The investigation will aim to determine whether these deepfakes violate the country’s Online Safety Act (OSA).
Read more: Grok’s deepfake crisis, explained
Kendal said in a statement Friday that if Ofcom desires to use its power to prevent X from being accessed in the U.K., “they will have our full support.”
On Friday, X finally put up guardrails on these images created through the app, limiting image generation and editing to paid subscribers on X, but Kendal said that this does not go “anywhere near far enough.”
“It is insulting to victims to say you can still have this service if you are willing to pay,” Kendal told MPs. “And it is monetising abuse.”
Here’s everything we know about the U.K.’s proposed crackdown on AI-generated sexualized images.
Musk’s reaction
Musk introduced Grok’s “Spicy Mode,” which generates adult content, last summer, and the app claims that it takes “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.”
Yet, since late December, X users have used Grok’s image generation to alter photographs that people post of themselves, including nonconsensual undressing.
Musk has responded to the controversy over AI-generated images not with regret but by arguing that his critics are seeking “any excuse for censorship.”
“Why is the U.K. government so fascist?” Musk wrote on X on Jan. 10 in one post. In another, he posted an AI-generated photo of Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a bikini.
X did not respond to a request for comment from TIME.
Government responses
The U.K. is the latest government to respond at the federal level to X’s deepfakes crisis, but it is not the only one. Over the weekend, Malaysia and Indonesia blocked access to Grok in their nations, becoming the first in the world to do so. The Southeast Asian countries said that the existing controls on the app were not enough to prevent the spread of nonconsensual sexual deepfakes of women and children.
Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs, said in a statement that these sexual deepfakes were a “serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space.”
Other leaders in countries such as France and India have condemned the use of Grok to generate such images and have been urged by regulators and lawmakers to investigate X over the issue. Euronews reported in early January that the European Commission was “very seriously” looking into the issue.
“This is not ‘spicy.’ This is illegal,” a Commission spokesperson told the outlet. “This is appalling. This is disgusting. This has no place in Europe.”
Free speech clash
The new law has the potential to set off a row between the U.S. and the U.K. over free speech.
Vice President J.D. Vance has frequently criticized European countries over the past year for their supposed “retreat” from free speech.
He clashed with Starmer during his last visit to the U.S. in February, over the U.K.’s online speech laws, with Vance claiming that Britain is stifling American companies and citizens.
“We also know that there have been infringements on free speech that actually affect not just the British—of course, what the British do in their own country is up to them—but also affect American technology companies and, by extension, American citizens,” Vance said at the time.
Starmer, for his part, retorted that he was “proud” of the U.K.’s history of free speech: “We’ve had free speech for a very, very long time in the United Kingdom and it will last for a very, very long time,” he told Vance.
The U.K.’s Grok crackdown comes amid the U.S. continuously clashing with the U.K. and the E.U. over AI and tech regulation and social media.
Meanwhile, as Grok is embroiled in scandal abroad, the Trump Administration has embraced the technology, most recently unveiling a partnership with the Pentagon on Monday. President Donald Trump also appears to be rekindling his relationship with Musk, after a bitter public feud last June, saying last week that the tech mogul is “great” and this week appealing to him to help make the internet available in Iran through his satellite company Starlink.
“I say about Elon, he’s 80% super genius, and 20% he makes mistakes,” Trump said on Jan. 4. “But he’s a good guy. He’s a well-meaning person.”
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