The U.K.’s investigation into Elon Musk’s X platform over allegedly illegal deepfakes risks igniting a simmering battle over online regulation and free speech between the U.S. and Europe.
On Monday, the U.K.’s online safety regulator Ofcom announced it had opened a formal investigation into the platform over the rise of sexualized deepfakes of women and children being created and shared on X. The investigation will examine whether the social media platform has failed to comply with its legal obligations under the U.K. Online Safety Act, which came into force in March last year. The UK government is also bringing into force a law that will make it illegal for companies to supply the tools that create deepfake images, the country’s UK technology secretary, Liz Kendall, said on Monday.
xAI’s Grok still appears to be churning out thousands of sexualized deepfakes of women and children, despite restrictions that the company imposed late last week that it said would make it much less likely for users to create these kinds of images.
“Reports of Grok being used to create and share illegal non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material on X have been deeply concerning,” Ofcom said in a statement, adding that “platforms must protect people in the U.K. from content that’s illegal in the U.K., and we won’t hesitate to investigate where we suspect companies are failing in their duties, especially where there’s a risk of harm to children.”
