US official warns UK against ‘Russia-style’ ban on X over AI-generated images

Donald Trump’s free speech tsar has compared the Government’s threats against social media platform X to Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

Sarah Rogers, under-secretary for public diplomacy at the US State Department, made the comparison as part of a series of messages criticising the UK.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said the Government would back regulator Ofcom if it decided to implement a ban on accessing X from the UK over its artificial intelligence Grok being used to create deepfake images.

Tech tycoon Elon Musk, the boss of Grok’s creator xAI and the X social media platform where images have been shared, has accused the UK Government of being “fascist” and trying to curb free speech after ministers stepped up threats to effectively block his website.

Ofcom has been in contact with X and xAI over the production of images of undressed people and sexualised images of children and is carrying out an “expedited assessment” of the firms’ response.

Ms Rogers said the UK was “contemplating a Russia-style X ban, to protect them from bikini images”.

But Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy claimed US vice president JD Vance was sympathetic to efforts to tackle the Grok-produced images.

Mr Lammy, who met Mr Vance in the US on Thursday, told The Guardian he raised the issue of Grok “and the horrendous, horrific situation in which this new technology is allowing deepfakes and the manipulation of images of women and children, which is just absolutely abhorrent”.

“He agreed with me that it was entirely unacceptable,” Mr Lammy said.

“I think he recognised the very seriousness with which images of women and children could be manipulated in this way, and he recognised how despicable, unacceptable, that is and I found him sympathetic to that position.”

Mr Musk claimed the Government “want any excuse for censorship” and “just want to suppress free speech”.

Responding to a chart showing arrest figures for online posts with the UK at the top, Mr Musk said: “Why is the UK Government so fascist?”

Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Ms Kendall said: “We are drawing an unbreakable line in the sand and telling tech firms, in no uncertain terms, that platforms profiting from abuse will never be acceptable.

“Innovation must serve humanity, not degrade it. If companies choose greed over responsibility, they will face the full force of the law.”

She said the Online Safety Act includes the power for courts to block services from being accessed in the United Kingdom if they refuse to comply with UK law.

“These powers exist for a reason. If we reach a point where Ofcom decides to use them, they will have the full support of this Government,” she said.