Liz Truss Rejects Moves by UK, Australia, Canada to Restrict Elon Musk’s X

Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss has dismissed moves by the UK, Australia, and Canada to restrict Elon Musk’s X.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined Commonwealth condemnation of Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, specifically its AI image generating tool, which allows for photos to be altered.

In some cases, Grok has been used to remove clothing from individuals including women and young children.

In Canberra, the Australian prime minister criticised the platform calling it “abhorrent.”

“It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility and Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better,” he told reporters.

Opposition Leader Sussan Ley shared Albanese’s criticisms, supporting a government crackdown on images generated without consent.

“It is totally unacceptable and it needs the strongest possible response, and we support any efforts to deliver that strongest possible response,” she told the press.

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner reported an increase in reports “from almost none to several reports over the past couple of weeks” regarding the use of Grok to generate sexualised or exploitative imagery.

“X, Grok, and a wide range of other services are also subject to systemic safety obligations to detect and remove child sexual exploitation material and other unlawful material as part of Australia’s world-leading industry codes and standards,” the commissioner said in a statement on Jan. 9.

“eSafety has written to X seeking further information about the safeguards in place to prevent Grok’s misuse on its service and to comply with these obligations.”

In response to Albanese the leaders of Canada and the UK, Truss said the countries were run by “censorious” and left-wing governments.

“They are no match for Musk and Trump,” she wrote on X.

UK Warns of Total Ban of X

The UK has warned that access to X could be effectively banned if it does not address the deepfake issue.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he asked media regulator Ofcom for “all options to be on the table,” which included banning the platform altogether.

Starmer told Greatest Hits Radio that Ofcom has his full support.

“X has got to get a grip of this. Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong,” he said.

“It’s disgusting. X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”

X and Musk’s Response

On Jan. 4, X said in a post that it would move to remove illegal content by permanently suspending accounts, and work with law enforcement and local governments where required.

“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk reassured users there would be consequences for misuse.

On Jan. 9, Grok turned off its image generation and editing abilities, instead delegating it to a feature available only to paying subscribers.

In a post on X, Musk hit back at world leaders claiming “they want any excuse for censorship.”

Musk was commenting on a post which questioned why other programs with similar capabilities like ChatGPT and Gemini were not being targeted.