In late December 2025 and January 2026, X (formerly Twitter) faced a massive regulatory crisis involving its AI tool, Grok. Users discovered that Grok’s image generation features had virtually no guardrails, allowing them to upload non-consensual photos of real people(including minors) and instruct the AI to "undress" them or place them in sexually explicit scenarios. This led to a flood of AI-generated CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) and non-consensual intimate imagery flooding the platform. This is illegal in both the US and the UK
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall condemned the failure as "disgraceful" and "vile." Crucially, the UK Government signalled it was prepared to enforce the Online Safety Act, threatening to block access to X in the UK entirely if the platform did not immediately remove the illegal content and fix the AI loopholes.
Instead of addressing the specific safety failure, Elon Musk and X framed the threat as an act of authoritarian censorship, labelling the UK government as "fascist" for threatening a site ban.
