London: Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said it remained concerned about Elon Musk-owned social media platform X’s handling of illegal hate and terrorist content, despite improvements in how quickly the company reviews reports.
In its first quarterly report to Ofcom, X met its commitments to review suspected illegal hate and terrorist content within agreed timeframes. However, the regulator said it continued to have concerns about the effectiveness of the platform’s efforts to remove such material and had received mixed reports about its engagement with third-party experts.
Ofcom said it would examine the data submitted by X and continue engaging with the company to assess whether it had met its obligations under Britain’s Online Safety Act. The regulator also reported further restrictions on the standalone Grok artificial intelligence chatbot service, operated by SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI.
The measures prevent users with UK internet addresses from viewing, generating or sharing pornographic content through the service’s image-generation tools. Restrictions have also been introduced to prevent companion chatbots, including Ani, from engaging in sexually explicit conversations with UK users.
Ofcom opened a formal investigation into X in January after reports that the Grok AI chatbot was being used to create and share sexualised images of real people, including children.
The regulator is examining whether X properly assessed the risks of illegal content, provided effective reporting mechanisms and acted appropriately on reports.
The investigation will determine whether X complied with its legal duties to protect people in Britain from illegal content. Ofcom has not yet concluded that the company breached the law. X did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The developments come as UK authorities increase scrutiny of online platforms over illegal content, user safety and the risks associated with generative AI tools.
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