The UK’s independent communications regulator Ofcom has announced it has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s X. This comes in response to overwhelming reports of Grok AI “being used to produce undressed images of people and sexualised images of children“, with the regulator now looking to determine whether X has breached the UK’s Online Safety Act.
We’ve opened a formal investigation into X under the Online Safety Act, to determine whether it has complied with its duties to protect people in the UK from illegal content.
https://t.co/YfIg3dMnSn pic.twitter.com/ZjYHMk7lgc
— Ofcom (@Ofcom) January 12, 2026
Musk: no smoke without fire
The investigation follows widespread condemnation after a series of scandals surrounding sexualised images of women, children and horrifically, sexualised images of ICE murder victim Renee Good.
On X, Ofcom has posted a clear explanation as to the reasons for its investigation, highlighting that it has a legal duty of responsibility in accordance with the Online Safety Act. The regulator also laid out the roadmap ahead should a breach be found on the Musk-owned social media platform.
Ofcom states that it launched its own investigation to ensure that X is complying with the Online Safety Act:
Following deeply concerning reports of the Grok AI chatbot account on X being used to produce undressed images of people and sexualised images of children, we urgently made contact with X to understand what steps it has taken to protect users in the UK. We assessed the company’s response as a matter of urgency, and have now opened an investigation to establish whether X has taken the necessary steps to comply with its duties under the Online Safety Act.
The regulator then lays out the purpose of its role, the legal issues in question and its relevance to the wider public:
The Online Safety Act is about tech firms making their services safer in the UK. Our job as the UK’s independent online safety watchdog is to ensure they do that, through things like better design, management and safeguards to protect users. Ofcom is not a censor – we do not tell platforms which specific posts or accounts to take down. Our job is to judge whether sites and apps have taken appropriate steps to protect people in the UK from content that is illegal in the UK, and protect UK children from other content that is harmful to them, such as pornography.
Ofcom then detailed the corresponding actions that would be taken if the investigation reveals said breach:
The Online Safety Act outlines the investigation process we follow for online services suspected if failing to comply. We will gather and analyse evidence, and if a breach is found, we’ll issue a provisional notice, allowing the provider to respond before a final decision is made. We can require companies to take action to come into compliance, and issue fines of up to £18million or 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, whichever is higher. In the most serious cases, we can seek a court order for business disruption measures.
The road ahead could get pretty dicey for Musk, and for his political cheerleaders in Farage’s Reform Party. We wrote yesterday about Reform London mayoral candidate Laila Cunningham defending Musk when discussing potential intervention by Ofcom, saying “it is not their job to protect us from opinions.” It appears to be lost on Cunningham that child sexual abuse is not just an “opinion.”
Even more worryingly, far-right politicians in the US have come to Musk’s defence, threatening sanctions and riots if the government takes action to ban X from British audiences.
All this huffing and puffing about attacks on free speech… creating tools that enable people to create and publish non-consensual sexually explicit images at scale, and in seconds, and then monetising it by making it only available to premium accounts…and also not acting upon… https://t.co/P90RK3ejac
— Sue Keogh (@sookio) January 12, 2026
Paedophilia isn’t a legitimate ‘opinion’
A common thread weaving through the far-right’s rhetoric is an attempt to legitimise deeply harmful behaviors, whether that be racism or anti-trans hate. Now it seems they’re prepared to argue that non-consensual sexualised images of women and children are ‘valid opinions’ in British society, thus protected by freedom of speech.
However, Ofcom have now made it clear that this is a potential breach too far. It is no accident that Elon Musk has cited free speech when criticised for the sexist, racist, and transphobic vitriol freely posted on X. The very idea that artificially generated sexualised images of children is remotely a freedom of speech concern is sickening and revolting.
Featured image via the Canary
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