UK launches formal investigation into X over ‘nudification’ of children images

Britain’s communications regulator Ofcom announced Monday it was opening a formal investigation into social media platform X for potentially publishing child sexual abuse material.

The move follows an eruption of complaints that began earlier this month when the platform’s artificial intelligence tool Grok was used to create sexual images of non-consenting people in response to user requests.

The creation of these images has slowed but not stopped in recent days, after the company restricted the ability to ask Grok to produce them to premium subscribers.

Ofcom said it made urgent contact with X last week after receiving “deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to create and share undressed images of people,” warning that it might amount to intimate image abuse and the creation of child sexual abuse material, both of which are criminal offenses in the U.K.

On Monday, the regulator announced it was attempting to establish whether X is in breach of Britain’s Online Safety Act. It stressed: “In any industry, companies that want to provide a service to people in the UK must comply with UK laws. The UK’s Online Safety Act is concerned with protecting people in the UK. It does not require platforms to restrict what people in other countries can see.”

Online platforms that fail to comply with the law face significant fines, and in the extreme case they refuse to follow British law could be blocked by the country’s internet service providers.

“Platforms must protect people in the UK from content that’s illegal in the UK, and we won’t hesitate to investigate where we suspect companies are failing in their duties, especially where there’s a risk of harm to children,” Ofcom said.

“We’ll progress this investigation as a matter of the highest priority, while ensuring we follow due process. As the UK’s independent online safety enforcement agency, it’s important we make sure our investigations are legally robust and fairly decided.”

Britain's Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said she welcomed Ofcom's “urgency in launching a formal investigation today. It is vital that Ofcom complete this investigation swiftly because the public — and most importantly the victims — will not accept any delay.”

Growing complaints

The announcement follows the Paris Prosecutor’s Office telling Recorded Future News that it was investigating X regarding “the dissemination of sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’, notably featuring minors, generated by Grok, X's artificial intelligence.”

The European Commission subsequently also stated it was “very seriously” looking into taking action against the Elon Musk-owned platform, with spokesperson Thomas Regnier telling journalists: “We are very well aware of the fact that Grok for X is now offering a ‘spicy mode’ showing explicit sexual content, with some output generated with childlike images. This is not spicy. This is illegal. This is appalling. This is disgusting. This is how we see it, and this has no place in Europe.”

Indonesia and Malaysia announced this weekend that they were blocking Grok over the images. 

It follows, the European Commission last month issuing X a €120 million ($139 million) fine for breaking the Digital Services Act (DSA), a set of EU laws about transparency and protecting users from scams and disinformation. X itself described the fine as “an unprecedented act of political censorship and an attack on free speech.”

That fine contributed to an ongoing political row between European authorities and the United States over attempts to regulate the platform. On previous issues, allies of Musk, including Vice President JD Vance, have criticized the EU’s regulations, accusing the bloc’s leadership of “attacking American companies over garbage.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has recently warned domestic technology companies that following EU and U.K. regulations could amount to “censoring Americans to comply with a foreign power’s laws” — which it claimed may be considered a violation of the law that prohibits unfair or deceptive practices in commerce.

Ofcom on Monday stated: “There are ways platforms can protect people in the UK without stopping their users elsewhere in the world from continuing to see that content.”