The Guardian view on regulating big tech: politicians must back Ofcom’s challenge to Musk | Editorial

A flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK's Online Safety Act to the test

The unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. Monday's announcement that X is being investigated was Ofcom's most combative move since key provisions in the Online Safety Act came intoforce. None of the other businesses it has challenged or fined have anything like the global reachor political clout of Elon Musk's social media giant. Whatever happens next, this is a defining moment. What is being defined is the extent to whichsome of the wealthiest companies on the planetare under democratic control.

But the announcement is only a first step. Ofcom has given no indication of how long its investigation will take. On Friday Downing Street described as insulting the decision to limit the use of the imagemaking Grok AI chatbot to X's paying subscribers. The government said that this amounted to turning the creation of abusive deepfakes into a premium service".

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