UK threatens to ban Musk's X over AI chatbot dispute
'X needs to get their act together and get this material down,' said UK PM Keir Starmer
January 09, 2026
The UK government has directed Ofcom to consider all measures, including a ban, for X due to concerns about unlawful AI-generated imagery by its AI chatbot Grok.
In the latest development, the UK PM, Sir Keir Starmer, has issued instructions to the media regulatory body Ofcom to come up with a strategy to stop British users from accessing these sites.
“This is disgraceful. It’s disgusting, and it’s not to be tolerated,” the Prime Minister said in an interview with Greatest Hits Radio.
Warning X that it could face a ban, the PM added, “X needs to get their act together and get this material down—and we will take action on this because it’s simply not tolerable.”
Earlier on Wednesday, January 7, a UK watchdog, the Watch Foundation, had found Grok-generated imagery on a dark web forum that would qualify as illegal child sexual abuse material.
The Guardian reports that sources in Downing Street said the powers of the Online Safety Act remain on the table, including fines worth billions of pounds or the complete removal of X from the UK market, where the platform has around 20 million users out of a global audience of 650 million.
For the unversed, Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought the platform X, formerly Twitter, for $44 billion (£32.7 billion) in 2022.
While Musk had previously criticized Britain’s Online Safety Act, claiming the law’s purpose is the “suppression of the people.”
Ofcom indicated on Monday, January 5, that it might launch an investigation into X over the images, adding it had made “urgent contact” with X and xAI.
Under the Act, Ofcom has the power to seek a court order that would require internet service providers and app stores to block a platform from UK users.
The act provides a legal procedure for any ban, including an investigation and an interim ruling before enforcement.
The legislation gives officials the power to block access to social media sites that repeatedly fail to remove illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and revenge porn.
