Elon Musk labels UK government ‘fascist’ as X faces possible ban amid Grok image controversy

Amid mounting pressure on X and Grok, Elon Musk has targeted the UK government for trying to suppress free speech. The comment by Musk comes as the UK government is mulling imposing fines or a possible ban on X in the country after the company's AI chatbot Grok generated sexualized images of women and children at the behest of users.

As UK ministers threatened a possible ban on X, Musk went on to claim that the social media platform earlier called Twitter has gone on to become the most downloaded app on the country's app stores.

In response to a post on X, Musk wrote, “They just want to suppress free speech.”

“They want any excuse for censorship,” he said while replying to another post.

Meanwhile, Musk also responded to a post by a user who stated that the UK has the highest arrests for social media comments in the world. The billionaire, while quoting the post, wrote, “Why is the UK government so fascist?”

Musk also reposted a few posts that suggested that Grok wasn't the only AI app that could generate non-consensual deepfakes of users and that even rivals like OpenAI and Google oblige user requests for generating images with people wearing bikinis.

UK Technology Secretary Liz Kendall had recently said that the country was looking at the possibility of banning access to X.

“X needs to get a grip and get this material down,” Liz was quoted by The Guardian as saying. “And I would remind them that in the Online Safety Act, there are backstop powers to block access to services if they refuse to comply with the law for people in the UK. And if Ofcom decides to use those powers, they would have the full backing of the government.”

Why is Grok being threatened?

Over the last few days, Grok has been used to widely circulate sexualized images of women and sometimes even children without their consent. Since Grok is deeply embedded in X, users have taken advantage of the chatbot to request images of women in bikinis or other such suggestive outfits.

Since then, Musk has warned users not to use Grok for illegal purposes while also suggesting that users should be held liable for generating such content and that the platform should not be punished. The Grok app has also faced heat in various countries, including India and Indonesia.

Indonesia has also banned the AI app in the country and summoned X officials for a meeting. US senators have also penned an open letter to Google and Apple asking them to remove the X and Grok apps from their app stores over violations of their terms by generating sexualized images.