'Disgraceful' Prime Minister slams Grok over sexualised AI images as he says X needs to 'get their act together'

Sir Keir Starmer said he backed Ofcom, which is looking into X and xAI - the firm founded by Elon Musk which created Grok - to take action against the site, and that he had asked for "all options to be on the table".

It comes as a former minister urged the Government and the Labour Party to stop using the site entirely.

Users of X appear to have prompted its artificial intelligence Grok, which is integrated into the platform, to generate deepfake images of children "in minimal clothing".

Sir Keir said on Thursday: "This is disgraceful. It's disgusting. And it's not to be tolerated.

"X has got to get a grip of this. Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this. This is wrong.

He went on: "It's disgusting. X need to get their act together and get this material down. We will take action on this because it's simply not tolerable."

His remarks come after Technology Secretary Liz Kendall this week said action must be taken urgently on the issue and backed Ofcom to take "any enforcement action" deemed necessary.

Former minister Louise Haigh urged ministers to join her in leaving the site, saying the "enablement, if not encouragement, of child sexual abuse mean it is unconscionable to use the site for another minute".

Read more: Government looking at ‘all options’ over Grok AI-generated deepfakes on X

Read more: Ofcom makes 'urgent contact' with X after users created sexualised images of children using AI tool

'Utterly unusable'

Writing on Blue Sky, a social media platform widely seen as an alternative to X since tech billionaire Mr Musk took over the site in 2022, Ms Haigh said: "I have not personally used X/Twitter for some time now.

"It was already an unpleasant place prior to its takeover by Elon Musk but since his acceptance of hate speech and anonymous online abusers, it has become utterly unusable.

"I continued to maintain an account and occasionally post because a critical mass of people, including the Government and journalists who we need to communicate with as MPs, remained on the site."

Ms Haigh, who served as transport secretary in the early days of the Government before having to resign after a historical criminal offence came to light, has become an influential voice on the soft left of the Labour Party.

The Sheffield Heeley MP added: "However, the revelations around the enablement, if not encouragement, of child sexual abuse mean it is unconscionable to use the site for another minute.

"I call on my party and my Government to remove themselves entirely from X and communicate with the public where they actually participate online and can be protected from such illegality."

On Wednesday, the Commons Women and Equalities Committee quit X over the same concerns and piled pressure on the Government to do the same.

A post on the X account of the 11-member committee on Wednesday read: "We are no longer posting on this account."

It directed followers to a page containing links to its other social media accounts.

Committee chairwoman Sarah Owen, who stopped using X in 2024, said she and her colleagues no longer see it as appropriate to use the platform to share their work.

In a letter to Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds, Ms Owen said: "Continuing use of the platform lends X a credibility it no longer merits.

"It is surely no longer tenable for the Government to have a continued presence on such a platform, not least given the Government's mission in tackling violence against women and girls."