UK to properly probe xAI to test if its revolting robo-smut generator broke the law
- Reference: 1770187567
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/04/uk_spain_social_media_regulation/
- Source link:
ICO [1]sent xAI a “please explain” note in early January. The regulator hasn’t yet said how, or if, Elon Musk’s AI outfit responded. But on Tuesday the regulator escalated by opening a formal investigation.
“Our investigation will assess whether XIUC and X.AI have complied with data protection law in the development and deployment of the Grok services, including the safeguards in place to protect people’s data rights,” said ICO executive director for regulatory risk and innovation William Malcolm, in a canned statement. “Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public."
[2]
Also on Tuesday, UK communications regulator Offcom [3]announced “We continue to demand answers from xAI about the risks it poses,” but is still “examining whether to launch an investigation into its compliance with the rules requiring services that publish pornographic material to use highly effective age checks to prevent children from accessing that content.”
Spain spat
While the UK’s regulators wrung their hands, Spain’s prime minister Pedro Sánchez took to the stage of the World Governments Summit annual meeting and delivered a [4]speech [PDF] in which he described social media as “a failed state” and “a place where laws are ignored and crime is endured. Where disinformation is worth more than truth, and half of users suffer hate speech. A failed state in which algorithms distort the public conversation and our data and images are defied and sold.”
He cited Grok’s ability to create sexualized images as another example of social networks failing, and called out Elon Musk for amplifying disinformation about a recent Spanish government decision to create a pathway to obtain residency permits for over 500,000 undocumented migrants.
[5]Elon Musk merges xAI into SpaceX to spread universal consciousness via a sentient sun
[6]Afghanistan’s Taliban government bans TikTok
[7]Indian tech minister picks a fight with Wikipedia over cricketer's dropped catch
[8]Spanish power giant sparks breach probe amid claims of massive data grab
Sánchez said his government will respond with a ban on children under 16 using social media, laws that make social media executives responsible for illegal acts on the platforms they manage, and criminalize algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content.
The PM said hateful content online is “invisible and untraceable” and pledged to create a tool to expose its sources and use it to inform investigations conducted by Spain’s public prosecutor. Sánchez named Grok, TikTok and Instagram as the targets of those investigations.
[9]
Musk later used his X account to describe Sánchez as “a tyrant and a traitor” and a “fascist totalitarian.”
And he wonders why governments in [10]France , [11]Australia , the EU, Canada, India, [12]Indonesia, and Malaysia have a problem with his platform. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/09/grok_image_generation_uk/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aYMm0OQwGnFUsOJROniyJwAAAAU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/investigation-into-x-and-scope-of-the-online-safety-act
[4] https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/presidente/intervenciones/Documents/2026/260203IntervencionPGWorldGovernmentsSummitIngles.pdf
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/musk_spacex_xai_merge_hallucination_burning_man/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/21/afghanistan_bans_tiktok/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/06/india_vs_wikipedia/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/14/endesa_breach/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aYMm0OQwGnFUsOJROniyJwAAAAU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/03/french_police_raid_x/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/10/16/esafetty_australia_google_x_noncompliance/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/12/asia_tech_news_roundup/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Utter boolarks.
It may be some of those things, in some measure, although I've never seen any of the latter on there.
It's also one of the only platforms that doesn't "toe the line" and holds the UK government to account for some of the crap they are trying to get away with. An example being grooming gangs which was massively underreported (both in the press, and to the Police) for years. Also, the suicidal Net Zero policies that only Europe, Canada and South Korea are still following (although China and India make noises).
Also, why only investigate X for this when the other AI platforms are equally bad or worse at putting women into bikinis?
If you are a state sponsored NPC then the thumbs down button is below.
Not that I agree with all the shite on X, there is definitely a LOT of misinformation. It's pretty obvious. But also important stuff too. I just feel like Starmer would just LOVE to shut the whole thing down, as it's currently doing the job that the press just can't seem to manage. He gets mocked relentlessly. It's also funny.
CSAM on X is no accident. It is [1]Musk's deliberate policy .
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/inside-musk-s-bet-to-hook-users-that-turned-grok-into-a-porn-generator/ar-AA1VtXa3
Even ignoring the "Well, he may be a serial killer, but he likes cats" apologetic vibe your post is giving off, it's hard to tell if you're trolling, or if you are really so caught up in your alt-right (well, these days, that could just be considered "right") bubble you actually believe that bullshit.
Twitter toes Musks line. On the days he and Trump aren't having a playground spat, that would also be the Trump line.
Whilst Trumps Gestapo [1]ignore court orders , and tramples on the constitution, whilst criticising Trump, ICE, or Israels genocide can get you deported, Musk calls everyone else a fascist for trying to hold him to account.
The fact that Musk and Trump are in the Epstein files, yet you complain about the UK not investigating unreported crimes is the height of cultish behaviour.
I don't think anyone here wants grooming rape gangs to go unpunished, whatever the colour of their skin (although you don't say it, you obviously mean just those with a darker complexion), though you're half right - the right wing media is completely silent when the perpetrators are white and English.
By the way, anonymous state cucking NPC (who does it for free), there's a hell of a lot of projection going on there!
I'd love to see twitter shut-down for all the propaganda, bullshit, and enticement to violence and terrorism, that it's lies provide to the hard-of-thinking alt-right numptys, probably just as strongly as those on the right want to shut down (or buy off) any media company that exposes your lies.
I'm not even going to mention your climate denial bullshit - that trope has sailed long ago.
Anyway, well done for standing up for your beliefs...... anonymously!
[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/30/ice-immigration-court-orders-00757894
It's also one of the only platforms that doesn't "toe the line" and holds the UK government to account
Private Eye has entered the chat.
Illegal sports streams can be closed down in minutes. Blocking XAI seems to be taking a little longer.
"Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public."
That's shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Surely that statement should instead be "Where we find obligations have not been met, we will prosecute them to the full extent of the law."?
You misunderstand the role of regulators.
Their primary job is to bring non-compliant businesses into compliance. They're not there to be prosecutors. Unlike the big US tax dodgers they don't have armies of high end lawyers just a handful of over-worked and underpaid lawyers. They do have powers to bring prosecutions and in some cases to levy civil monetary penalties (that can still be challenged through the courts), but as noted their legal resources are very limited. Even with a successful prosecution the fines that get levied are trivial because the British legal system doesn't have the intentionally punitive fines system that the US system has. And the far higher fines of the US system don't seem to get better results anyway.
The important point here is that everything can be challenged in the courts. So starting from the first whiff or wrongdoing, the regulator has to follow its own published investigation and enforcement policies to the letter and keep the proof; Evidence must be gathered to prosecutorial standards; the regulator's lawyers have to identify exactly what aspect of law has been breached, when and by whom (specifically relevant legal entities); the company has to be asked for its side of the story, interactions with the company are likely to take place under PACE cautions - at which point the company calls in its own lawyers and time freezes. When challenged, US companies use every potential trick in the book to evade being held to account - I know this for a fact, in relation to a major US tech company that tried to bully the regulator I work for into agreeing that said company could avoid obligations that everybody else complied with. A decision has to be made as to what is the way forward - a pinky promise by the company not to do it again, a legally binding compliance undertaking, a monetary penalty by the regulator, a prosecution by the regulator, or calling in the CPS and possibly the police. Because regulators (even those pretending to be arms length bodies) are accountable to ministers and parliament, it's unheard of for them to start a high profile prosecution without the relevant minister being briefed and assenting. All of this is SLOOOWWWWW.
If you wanted pre-emptive regulators deciding what should and shouldn't happen without due process, then that's possible, but I don't think you'd be quite so keen on that sort of regulatory world.
Musk later said…
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Ban American tech bros income streams
Shut down the soul destroying social media tat before another generation is dashed against the rocks.
Musk later used his X account to describe Sánchez as “a tyrant and a traitor” and a “fascist totalitarian.”
Why can't UK politicians earn such a ringing endorsement?
Perhaps I'm missing something here, but X disabled the clothing removal / move to a bikini type abilities from Grok last I checked, which was last night. I'm going to have to turn elsewhere to generate my furry smut now - I feel oppressed.
Completely untrue, of course. Reuters from yesterday:
[1]Exclusive: Despite new curbs, Elon Musk’s Grok at times produces sexualized images - even when told subjects didn’t consent
[1] https://www.reuters.com/business/despite-new-curbs-elon-musks-grok-times-produces-sexualized-images-even-when-2026-02-03/
Idiot.
“...a tyrant and a traitor”
Hmm, it would seem as if Musk is firing from the lip again. How can anyone be both a tyrant and a traitor at the same time?
If someone is a tyrant, then they are, by definition in control of the the state. L'etat, c'est moi" as Louis XIV put it.
How then can a tyrant be a traitor? They would in effect be betraying themselves.
Maybe it was all the spittle coating the screen that stopped Musk reading what he had just written.
If he is so dumb why is he so rich?
Re: Idiot.
Musk's real skill: not getting clobbered by the SEC for stock market manipulation and securities fraud. It is almost as if he had a presidential mandate to destroy any part of the government that would investigate his activities.
Re: How then can a tyrant be a traitor?
There are many things one can betray, including yourself. A leader might not betray their own interests, but nevertheless betray (e.g.) the people of their country. So when you hear a bare "$X is a traitor", the thing to determine is what they are being said (or implied) to betray, and whether you think that an important source of obligation.
Perhaps Snowdon is a useful case to consider: he could be described as betraying his employer by becoming a whistleblower; but you might well say that he did not betray the American people, to whom he did a service by exposing wrongdoing.
Every accusation...
"Musk later used his X account to describe Sánchez as “a tyrant and a traitor” and a “fascist totalitarian.”
Re: Every accusation...
I think every time Musk projects about tyrants, fascism, and so on, the target of his projection should just take a leaf from France's shitposting X account, which is quote-tweeting it and replying with a simple image of his "awkward wave":
[1]Link
[1] https://nitter.net/FrenchResponse/status/2010429570076594647#m
Re: Every accusation...
Musk later used his X account to describe Sánchez as “a tyrant and a traitor” and a “fascist totalitarian” and offered him a job.
Offcom announced “We continue to demand answers from xAI about the risks it poses,”
That's not a difficult question to answer: It's a mis-information, hate & kiddie pr0n distribution system with no social value.
If you can't work out what to do, resign.