{"id":227083,"date":"2026-01-10T19:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/227083\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T19:00:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T19:00:22","slug":"uk-ministers-considering-leaving-x-amid-concern-over-ai-tool-images-grok-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/227083\/","title":{"rendered":"UK ministers considering leaving X amid concern over AI tool images | Grok AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK ministers are considering leaving X as a result of the controversy over the platform\u2019s AI tool, which has been allowing<\/a> users to generate digitally altered pictures of people \u2013 including children \u2013 with their clothes removed.<\/p>\n

Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour<\/a> party and a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, said on Friday that conversations were happening within the government and Labour about their continued use of the social media platform, which is controlled by Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

The government has come under mounting pressure to leave X<\/a> after the site was flooded with images including sexualised and unclothed pictures of children generated by its AI tool, Grok.<\/p>\n

Turley told BBC Radio 4\u2019s Today programme: \u201cX, first and foremost, has to get its act together and prevent this. It has the powers to do this, and we need to make sure there are firm consequences for that.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt\u2019s really, really important that we tackle this. Those conversations are ongoing across government. I think all of us in politics are evaluating our use of social media and how we do that, and I know that conversation is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if she would personally leave the site, Turley said: \u201cI\u2019ve thought about that a lot over the past few months.\u201d Asked whether the Labour party would do so, she added: \u201cThose conversations are taking place because it\u2019s really important that we make sure that we\u2019re in a safe space.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anna Turley said she had thought \u2018a lot\u2019 about leaving X over the past few months. Photograph: Thomas Krych\/Zuma Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

On Friday, X said it was limiting the use of Grok\u2019s image creating tool to paid users only<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The government has so far resisted calls to stop using the social media platform, focusing instead on the powers that the media regulator Ofcom has to take action against X under the Online Safety Act.<\/p>\n

Those powers include preventing the company having access to certain technology and funding, which could amount to a de facto ban in the UK.<\/p>\n

Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said on Thursday<\/a>: \u201cX has got to get a grip of this. And Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong. It\u2019s unlawful. We\u2019re not going to tolerate it. I\u2019ve asked for all options to be on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some prominent MPs and committees have announced they will stop using X, including the women and equalities committee, whose chair, Sarah Owen, said this week<\/a> the site was \u201cnot an appropriate platform to be using for our communications\u201d.<\/p>\n

Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, on Thursday called for the government to leave the platform, saying it would be \u201cunconscionable\u201d to use it \u201cfor another minute\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others, however, are urging the government to remain on the site, which says it has more than 500 million monthly active users and remains one of the biggest social media platforms in the world.<\/p>\n

James Lyons, a former director of communications to Starmer, told the PoliticsHome podcast<\/a> this week: \u201cI take the view that your job in political communication is to persuade people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to persuade people, you have to engage, and I think you should be using all the platforms and forums that you can to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the major parties have yet left the site.<\/p>\n

Asked this week whether he would stop taking payments from X for his posts, the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage, declined to answer, saying he was \u201cvery worried\u201d about the images on the site but believed the company would listen to criticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK ministers are considering leaving X as a result of the controversy over the platform\u2019s AI tool, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-227083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}