The scandal around Elon Musk's Grok. Deepfakes under fire from governments

Grok has come under fire from governments around the world for allowing users to generate sexually explicit, non-consensual deepfakes of people. The technology has faced particularly sharp criticism from the UK, which is investigating whether Website X has met its obligations under the Online Safety Act (OSA), which restricts harmful online content.

Prime minister KeirStarmer supported the regulatory investigation, stating: “We will take action on this matter because it is simply unacceptable.

This is a marked change in tone as Starmer has previously sought to minimize the bill's impact on Britain's wider relationship with the United States. The escalating tensions come in the context of a transatlantic war of words between the White House and European countries over President Donald Trump's plans to purchase Greenland.

“Keir Starmer has been much more restrained in his stance on regulating big tech companies,” he says Adele Waltona member of the nonprofit Online Safety Act Network. — The Grok scandal really pushed him to take action to protect vulnerable people.

The scandal threatens to disrupt delicate diplomatic relations between countries on both sides of the Atlantic over online speech. The scale of the negative impact will depend on the next steps the UK takes in the Grok case, and shows how different the two countries' positions are on the ban on the publication of disgusting content.

Last year, both Congress and the White House took a strong stance on the UK's OSA bill. The Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee led a delegation to London, where lawmakers pressed British regulators on the bill's impact on free speech, and over the summer the House committee invited the leader of the Reform UK party Nigel Farage to go on a tirade in Washington about the OSA Act. The bill also appears to have been a factor in the US decision in December to suspend its technology trade partnership with the UK.

Meanwhile, the British government has taken much more aggressive action on the matter. Before the UK Communications Authority announced plans to investigate X earlier this month, the British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy he raised objections to Grok during a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance.

So far, the U.S. government's response has been noticeably muted — perhaps because Americans aren't too happy with Grok either. “This has certainly crossed the line for many people, and I think that's true on both sides of the Atlantic,” says Daniel Castro, vice president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. -It makes it difficult [Stanom Zjednoczonym] taking action [w obronie Groka]”.

America is testing the ground for taking action against Grok deepfakes. California has launched its own investigation into X, and the U.S. Senate passed a bill last week that would allow victims of sexual deepfakes to sue the creators and distributors of such content. The act is aimed at users who generate pornographic deepfakes. Owner X, Elon Muskargues that they should be held responsible for the damage caused by such unauthorized images, not the platforms.

Another act, passed last year by Congress with the support of the first lady Melania Trumpobliges platforms to remove unauthorized intimate images, but does not impose the harsh penalties set out in the UK's Online Safety Act.

There are possible solutions for the UK if tensions over Grok become too heated. US Undersecretary of State Sarah B. Rogers recently suggested that if the Communications Authority banned X, the British could face an American backlash.

Castro notes that a ban on X would raise concerns among other major platforms that also offer AI-powered image-generating tools and could face a similar problem with users posting deepfakes without the consent of the people depicted in them. Wider industry opposition would be difficult for the UK to overcome.