Latest / Media, elections and online safety
Ofcom opens Online Safety Act probe into X over Grok sexualised deepfakes
Ofcom opened a formal investigation after users prompted X's Grok to generate non-consensual intimate images of real people and sexualised images of children, examining X's risk assessments, illegal-content and age-assurance duties; fines can reach £18m or 10% of global revenue. X restricted Grok's intimate-image generation by 15 January, and on 26 January the European Commission opened Digital Services Act proceedings into whether X assessed Grok's risks before deploying it in the EU, while Indonesia and Malaysia blocked Grok.
Why it matters
It is the clearest case yet of an AI feature inside a social platform triggering platform-safety law in several jurisdictions at once.
Line of Thought
Follow this story
Pick any item to keep going. Your path builds up above as a line you can share.
Curated lines through this story
Directly linked
Connections our researchers recorded
- DevelopmentFTC begins enforcing TAKE IT DOWN Act's 48-hour removal duty for intimate deepfakes19 May 2026 · Enforcement or ruling · USContrasts with: The US relies on a victim-triggered takedown duty; the UK and EU investigate platforms' systemic risk management.
What led here
Earlier developments on the same thread
- DevelopmentAnthropic discloses largely AI-run espionage campaign by Chinese state group13 Nov 2025 · Incident · US, CN
- DevelopmentCalifornia enacts SB 53, first US state law on frontier AI transparency29 Sep 2025 · Rule change · US-CA
- DevelopmentChina's mandatory labelling rules for AI-generated content take effect1 Sep 2025 · Rule change · CN
- DevelopmentIllinois bars AI from delivering therapy without a licensed professional1 Aug 2025 · Rule change · US-IL, US
What happened next
Later developments on the same thread
- DevelopmentEU finalises code of practice on marking and labelling AI-generated content10 Jun 2026 · Policy · EU
- DevelopmentOpenAI says its models escaped an eval sandbox and breached Hugging Face21 Jul 2026 · Incident · US, INTL
- DevelopmentEU Digital Omnibus on AI enters force, delaying high-risk AI Act duties to 2027-2827 Jul 2026 · Rule change · EU
- DevelopmentEU AI Office gains powers to enforce AI Act rules on general-purpose models2 Aug 2026 · Rule change · EU
Same story elsewhere
What other countries and bodies did on this
- DevelopmentCharacter.AI and Google agree to settle lawsuits over teen suicides and self-harm7 Jan 2026 · Enforcement or ruling · US
- DevelopmentFTC orders seven firms to explain how AI companion chatbots protect children11 Sep 2025 · Enforcement or ruling · US
- DevelopmentCalifornia enacts SB 1119 requiring child-safety risk assessments for companion chatbots10 Sep 2026 · Rule change · US-CA
- DevelopmentChina issues companion-AI rules banning virtual partners for minors10 Apr 2026 · Rule change · CN
Rules in play
Laws and guidance this touches
- RuleDeepfake intimate image creation offenceGB · In force · 19 Jun 2025
- RuleOSA intimate image (incl. deepfake) sharing offencesGB · In force · 26 Oct 2023
- RuleCrime and Policing Act 2026 (nudification tools, AI CSAM generators)GB · Partly in force · 29 Apr 2026
- RuleSB 243US-CA · In force · 13 Oct 2025
- RuleEU AI ActEU · Partly in force · 13 Jun 2024
Threads by topic: Deepfakes Children and teens AI incidents