Ofcom, a UK-based regulator, has officially begun a formal investigation into X over the spread of sexualised images created by its AI tool Grok. The end result of this move is to determine if Elon Musk’s social media company is in breach of laws designed to protect users from illegal content.
The move was somewhat expected after Ofcom and the UK government hit out the company over the content, which also faced a backlash from the European Commission and led to a ban on Grok in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Ofcom stated it received “deeply concerning” reports the Grok AI chatbot is being used to create and share undressed images of people, which may amount to “intimate image abuse or pornography”, in addition to sexualised images of children which could amount to child sexual abuse material.
The regulator revealed it first made contact with X on 5 January and set a deadline of 9 January for it to explain what steps it had taken to comply with its duties under the country’s Online Safety Act, which deems it unlawful to create or share intimate or sexually explicit images of people without consent.
Insulting
X moved to restrict access to the content to paid users, a move the UK government described as insulting. Musk then hit back, accusing the UK of wanting any excuse for censorship.
As part of the investigation, Ofcom stated it would assess the risk of people seeing content which is illegal in the UK before making any significant changes to the service. It also plans to assess if X is taking appropriate steps to remove illegal content; protect users from a breach of privacy laws; and use age assurance measures to protect children from seeing pornography.
If the investigation finds X is in breach of UK law, Ofcom can impose fines of up to £18 million or 10 per cent of qualifying worldwide revenue.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: xAI
