Trump official warns UK on ‘Russia-style’ X ban after Grok row
A key Trump administration official has sent the UK a firm warning following speculation Elon Musk’s X platform may face a ban after a scandal around AI-generated images.
Sarah Rogers, under-secretary for public diplomacy at the US State Department, issued a series of messages criticising the UK on the rumoured ban.
Rogers said the UK was “contemplating a Russia-style X ban to protect [women] from bikini images” and took a swipe at recent discourse in Britain around cousin marriage and its “connection to honour killing”.
It follows Elon Musk himself taking yet another jab at the Labour government as he posted on X: “Why is the UK government so fascist?”.
The tech tycoon accused the government of wanting “any excuse for censorship”.
Criticism of Musk’s social platform has been centred around Grok’s – X’s AI bot – production of images of child abuse and manipulation of photographs of real women and girls to remove their clothes.
Ofcom assessing Grok scandal
Earlier this week Technology secretary Liz Kendall gave her support to regulator Ofcom if it decided to effectively block X for failing to comply with UK laws.
“Sexually manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent,” Kendall said.
Ofcom said it was undertaking an “expedited assessment” after X and Grok’s creator xAI responded to contact from the regulator.
On Friday, X appeared to have changed Grok’s settings, with the chatbot telling users that only paid subscribers could ask it to manipulate images.
Rogers is the second US official to target the UK over its response to the Grok scandal.
Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican Congresswoman and ally of President Trump, said she was drafting legislation that would allow the US to sanction the UK if the UK bans or restricts X under the Online Safety Act.
Luna, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described any move against the platform as “a political war against Elon Musk and free speech”.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, today Kendall has said: “We are drawing an unbreakable line in the sand and telling tech firms, in no uncertain terms, that platforms profiting from abuse will never be acceptable.
“Innovation must serve humanity, not degrade it. If companies choose greed over responsibility, they will face the full force of the law.”