Ofcom officially investigating X over Grok nudification • The Register

Ofcom is investigating X over potential violations of the On-line Security Act, Britian’s comms watchdog has confirmed.

The probe follows heavy strain from politicians for the regulator to take motion after a interval of heightened scrutiny of its AI chatbot, Grok, producing sexualized photos with out the consent of customers, primarily girls.

Asserting the investigation, Ofcom mentioned on Monday: “There have been deeply regarding stories of the Grok AI chatbot account on X getting used to create and share undressed photos of individuals – which can quantity to intimate picture abuse or pornography – and sexualised photos of youngsters which will quantity to youngster sexual abuse materials (CSAM).

“Because the UK’s unbiased on-line security watchdog, we urgently made contact with X on Monday, January 5, and set a agency deadline of Friday, January 9, for it to elucidate what steps it has taken to adjust to its duties to guard its customers within the UK.

“The corporate responded by the deadline, and we carried out an expedited evaluation of obtainable proof as a matter of urgency.”

Ofcom didn’t supply any particulars in regards to the nature of X’s response, however the regulator is known to have sought pressing clarification from xAI about the way it plans to guard UK customers.

The formal assessment will assess whether or not X understands the chance of UK customers – together with youngsters – seeing unlawful content material on the platform, whether or not it has taken the suitable steps to stop entry to unlawful content material, and its efforts to take away unlawful content material as soon as posted.

Offenses beneath the On-line Security Act may be punished with fines of as much as £18 million ($24 million) or 10 % of qualifying worldwide income, whichever is increased.

Essentially the most severe offenders may additionally be subjected to enterprise disruption measures, which might see a UK court docket compel fee suppliers and advertisers to stop their buying and selling relationships with a given group.

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “Platforms should shield folks within the UK from content material that is unlawful within the UK, and we can’t hesitate to research the place we suspect firms are failing of their duties, particularly the place there is a danger of hurt to youngsters.

“We’ll progress this investigation as a matter of the best precedence, whereas making certain we observe due course of. Because the UK’s unbiased on-line security enforcement company, it is essential we ensure our investigations are legally sturdy and pretty determined.”

Expertise Secretary Liz Kendall, mentioned in an announcement immediately that she welcomes Ofcom’s choice to invesitgate X, which must conclude “swiftly” on behalf of victims and most people.

“The content material created and shared utilizing Grok in current days has been deeply disturbing and I will probably be updating Parliament later immediately on the federal government’s response.”

Political strain

Regardless of the controversies round Grok and its functionality to digitally undress folks surfacing months in the past, discussions of the difficulty reached a fever pitch final week as UK authorities started looking seriously at X.

On Friday, Members of Parliament pressed the UK authorities for solutions as to why it has not penalized X over the Grok nudification furor.

In letters to to tech minister Liz Kendall and Ofcom CEO Melanie Dawes, Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Science, Innovation and Expertise Committee, mentioned Grok’s non-consensual sexualized deepfakes had been “extraordinarily alarming.”

Dame Onwurah pointed to legislative gaps that, at current, seemingly permit these nudification instruments to function unchecked. 

Handed in July 2025, the Knowledge Use and Entry Act features a provision to ban the creation of deepfake imagery, though it isn’t but in power, as secondary laws have to be handed.

Equally, the Online Safety Act makes intimate picture abuse a prison offense, but it surely doesn’t particularly legislate towards AI-generated intimate imagery, supplied that it isn’t shared.

These legislative gaps apart, there are provisions in UK regulation that ban the sorts of content material Grok was producing. For instance, the Sexual Offences Act makes it unlawful to share non-consensual intimate photos or CSAM, and this part of regulation was inserted into the On-line Security Act.

Nearly all of Dame Onwurah’s questions had been leveled at Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator. She asked [PDF] Dawes why the regulator has solely now made pressing contact with xAI, X’s AI arm, as a substitute of starting a right away investigation when stories of Grok’s abuse started circulating months in the past.

Ofcom didn’t handle these questions head-on in its announcement immediately.

Moreover, Ofcom is anticipated to elucidate its views on different associated issues, comparable to X limiting Grok’s image functionality to paid users only, whether or not the regulator feels geared up to implement penalties beneath present legal guidelines, and what sorts of talks it has held with X up to now.

The committee chair merely asked [PDF] Kendall when the federal government will ban nudification instruments, and what it’s doing to trace the AI harms that are not coated by present laws.

“Reviews that xAI’s Grok has been used to create non-consensual sexualised deepfakes on X are extraordinarily alarming,” mentioned Dame Onwurah. “My committee warned final 12 months that the On-line Security Act was riddled with gaps – together with its failure to explicitly regulate generative AI. Latest stories about these deepfakes present, in stark phrases, how UK residents have been left uncovered to on-line harms whereas social media firms function with obvious impunity.  

“I’ve written to each the federal government and Ofcom in search of pressing readability on how they are going to sort out the speedy rise of those AI-generated intimate deepfakes. We’d like transparency on Ofcom’s conversations with xAI and a transparent rationalization of whether or not it has the powers to take efficient enforcement motion. The federal government should additionally set out when it’s going to lastly introduce the promised ban on nudification instruments and take the steps wanted to guard girls and kids on-line.”

Kendall issued an announcement on Friday, unconnected to Dame Onwurah’s letter, denouncing Grok’s nudification performance, calling on Ofcom to train the total authorized powers given to it.

She additionally confirmed that the federal government is “within the coming weeks” implementing new powers that may criminalize the creation of non-consensual intimate photos, and the Crime and Policing Bill, which is presently within the technique of turning into regulation, features a ban on nudification instruments.

Kendall pointed to Ofcom’s steering on stopping violence towards girls and women (VAWG), printed in November, saying she expects all platforms to abide by the ideas as set out in that document [PDF].

The regulator’s VAWG steering technically applies to all platforms in scope of the On-line Security Act, and mandates that particular motion have to be taken to detect dangerous exercise and assist these in danger. Punishments can vary from having to ban customers to full regulatory enforcement motion.

Kendall’s assertion additionally rejected X’s choice to limit Grok’s image-generation performance to paid customers solely – an obvious effort to restrict the abuse of Grok by the lots.

“Sexually manipulating photos of ladies and kids is despicable and abhorrent,” she mentioned. “It’s an insult and completely unacceptable for Grok to nonetheless permit this in the event you’re prepared to pay for it.

“I’d remind xAI that the On-line Security Act contains the facility to dam companies from being accessed within the UK, in the event that they refuse to adjust to UK regulation. If Ofcom decides to make use of these powers, they are going to have our full assist.”

Nevertheless unlikely an outright ban on X could also be, it might not be unprecedented. In current days, the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia both blocked public access to the social media platform over Grok’s nudifying points.

Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Fee mentioned X failed to handle the issue, whereas Indonesia’s minister of communications and digital affairs, Meutya Hafid, described Grok’s deepfakes as a severe violation of human rights and dignity. ®