radiofree.asia

Government instruct Ofcom to use ‘all powers’ against X, including potential ban

Trouble is brewing for social media platform X (formerly Twitter) during the ongoing backlash to its AI, ‘Grok’, for creating sexualised and violent deepfakes of people, mostly women and even children.

Now, the government has instructed media watchdog Ofcom to make use of its full force in tackling the situation. This could include anything up to a complete ban of the site in the UK.

‘Disgraceful’

On January 5, Ofcom issued a statement on the deepfake pornography on X:

We are aware of serious concerns raised about a feature on Grok on X that produces undressed images of people and sexualised images of children.

We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK. Based on their response we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.

For his part, Elon Musk, the owner of X, displayed awareness of the AI deepfakes on his platform. However, he tried to joke about the trend – even asking Grok to put him in a bikini.

Then, on 8 January, PM Keir Starmer gave an interview on Greatest Hits Radio in which he commented on the situation:

This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting. And it’s not to be tolerated… Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this.

It’s unlawful. We’re not going to tolerate it. I’ve asked for all options to be on the table.

Likewise, government sources informed BBC News that:

We would expect Ofcom to use all powers at its disposal in regard to Grok & X.

Online Safety Act

Ofcom derives its powers regarding X from the Online Safety Act. This includes the potential to ask the High Court to prevent the public’s access and payments to offending companies’ websites. Essentially, this would be a full ban on the use of X in the UK.

In the usually circumstances, that kind of ban would require an investigation. However, Ofcom could potentially skip this step if there is a danger of risk to children or other serious harms — say, if the website was repeatedly generating child pornography.

Musk has previously criticised the UK’s Online Safety Act, stating that it amounts to the “suppression of the people”. Thus far, his pitiful response to the deepfake scandal has been to limit access to the AI’s image generation feature. Grok posted:

Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.

This is, of course, nowhere near good enough. In fact, Labour MP Jess Asato, who campaigned for the regulation of pornography, stated:

While it is a step forward to have removed the universal access to Grok’s disgusting nudifying features, this still means paying users can take images of women without their consent to sexualise and brutalise them. Paying to put semen, bullet holes or bikinis on women is still digital sexual assault and xAI should disable the feature for good.

Inevitably, the absolute dregs of the right wing have come out swinging in defence of X:

 

Sure, Ross, this is what will bring down the UK government.
However, the vast majority of the public appear to believe that Grok, X and Musk are in the wrong here. According to a recent article on the polling website YouGov:

A new YouGov survey shows that the British public overwhelmingly believe AI companies should not be allowed to generate such imagery. Fully 96% of Britons say that firms should not be allowed to generate ‘undressed’ images of children (only 1% say they should), with 87% saying the same regarding such images of adults (5% think this is ok).

It remains to be seen whether Ofcom will opt for a full ban on X in response to the AI deepfake scandal. However, both public opinion on the UK government appear to support the watchdog in cracking down on the rogue social media platform.

Featured image via the Canary

By Alex/Rose Cocker

This post was originally published on Canary.