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Elon Musk’s X “is not doing enough to keep its customers safe online”, a minister has said, as the UK government prepares to outline possible action against the platform over the mass production of sexualised images of woman and children.
Peter Kyle, the business secretary, said the government would fully support any action taken by Ofcom, the media regulator, against X – including the possibility that the platform could be blocked in the UK.
Kyle said Ofcom had received information it had requested from X as part of a fast-tracked investigation into the use of platform’s built-in AI tool, Grok, to generate large numbers of manipulated images of people, often depicting them in minimal clothing or sexualised poses.
The technology secretary, Liz Kendall, who said on Friday that she expected action from Ofcom within days, is due to give a statement to the Commons on Monday afternoon.
Kyle told Sky News: “Let me be really clear about X: X is not doing enough to keep its customers safe online.”
In a later interview on BBC One’s Breakfast programme, Kyle said it was “appalling” that X had not tested Grok properly, given its capacity to manipulate images and its potential impact on women.
“The fact that I met just yesterday a Jewish woman who has found her image of herself in a bikini outside Auschwitz being generated by AI and put online made me feel sick to my stomach,” he said.
“And the fact that there are people who are running and designing these materials, putting it out on to the internet without checking the impact it would have on their customers and their service users and to society as a whole, I think is a real worry.”
After Ofcom requested information from X, the company provided it and the regulator was conducting what Kyle described as “an expedited inquiry”.
He said: “They have a range of powers that goes from heavy, heavy fines all the way through to banning X from our country, if deemed appropriate. And, of course, this government and Liz Kendall, the technology secretary, stands [fully] behind Ofcom in their ability to do this.”
Any move to block X, which would require a court order, would be likely to provoke a significant response from Musk and Donald Trump’s administration.
Musk, who frequently posts far-right and ethno-nationalist content, has previously urged Britons to “fight back” against Keir Starmer’s government, which he portrays as hostile to free speech.
On Sunday, a Trump administration official focused on free speech, likened the possible UK action against X to censorship in Vladimir Putin’s Russia.
In one of several posts on the issue, Sarah Rogers, the US undersecretary for public diplomacy, said the UK government was “contemplating a Russia-style @X ban”.
Under the Online Safety Act, Ofcom can compel platforms to address such material and issue multimillion-pound fines for lack of compliance, with the ultimate sanction being a court order requiring internet providers to block a site or app entirely.
On Friday, X announced that the ability to generate and edit images would be “limited to paying subscribers”. Downing Street described the move as unacceptable, saying it simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service”.
