UK Threatened With Sanctions if Starmer Bans X
Britain has been threatened with sanctions if Sir Keir Starmer attempts to block Elon Musk’s X over its AI tool undressing women and children. The Telegraph has more.
Anna Paulina Luna, a US Republican congresswoman and ally of Donald Trump, warned she would bring forward legislation to “sanction not only Starmer, but Britain as a whole” if it moved to ban the social media platform.
She issued the threat after Sir Keir called for “all options to be on the table” to force X to stop thousands of non-consensual sexualised images of women from being shared on social media.
Users have been using the social network’s AI chatbot, Grok, to digitally undress pictures of women, including ministers, MPs and celebrities, without their consent. Some images also included children.
Officials are now considering whether these images breach the UK’s Online Safety Act, which has the power to levy billions of pounds in fines or ban apps entirely.
However, the possibility of a ban has already sparked tensions with policymakers in the US.
Luna, who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said legislation was “currently being drafted” to introduce potential sanctions on the UK.
She said this would “mirror actions previously taken by the US in response to foreign governments restricting the platform”.
This included sanctioning a Brazilian judge who briefly imposed a ban on X in 2024.
The US also banned Thierry Breton, the former EU markets tsar who led Europe’s efforts to crack down on US technology giants, from entering America in December.
Luna said: “This is a political war against Elon Musk and free speech – nothing more.”
The controversy has already led to X seeking a potential climbdown, as it appeared to start halting thousands of attempts to create non-consensual sexualised images using Grok.
In response to user requests to create these images, Grok said: “Image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”
However, Downing Street said the latest changes did not go far enough.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said the change “simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service”.
“It’s not a solution. In fact, it’s insulting to the victims of misogyny and sexual violence.
“What it does prove is that X can move swiftly when it wants to do so.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Liz Kendall, the Technology Secretary, has said Ofcom will take action against X “in days, not weeks” and use “the full legal powers Parliament has given them”.
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Bring it on, I say – the banning of X that is. Never interrupt your enemy when they are making a mistake.
I doubt it will happen – a full ban, anyway, as it would be a monumental blunder that would push yet more previously asleep neutrals into the “radicalised” camp.
Well I can imagine that the first accounts to be frozen will be UK government and quangos from local government on up. Which will make it difficult to monitor what the rest of the world or even the civilian population is saying.
No more Met Office weather alerts, Pollution warnings, Disease X alarmism, Invasion warnings… Yes. Bring it on.
Oh no, we will be forced back to al-beeb just to catch up with the “news.”
Whut? They do news?
So rumour has it.
Is that true or did you hear it on the BBC?
😀😀
He might have taken them out with a preemptive strike by then. I certainly hope so.
😀😀😀
I thought they only did propaganda?🤔
And VPN will simply negate the ban. So fucking dumb are Starmer and co.
I don’t use X or Grok, but I’d wager examples of it being used “to undress women” are in the extreme minority of it’s uses.
They’re intentionally comparing these cases to rape to push through censorship of speech on the platform, because who could object to protecting women against “sexual violence”…?
Don’t be fooled. This isn’t about protecting anyone.
The one thing we know for certain is that this government doesn’t give a F. about protecting its people. Any statement to the contrary is a blatant lie.
This is a seriously thin pretext because all X provides is a tool. The tool itself doesn’t do anything, people who use it do something. Insofar these people do something which breaks any laws, it’s them who need to be prosecuted and not the company providing the tool.
It’s protecting this heinous government – it thinks.
This is where political posturing hits power politics.
Britain, Denmark, Europe are all being bullied because they are powerless, impotent.
We once had the finest Armed Forces in the world. We had a Royal Yacht. We won wars in Oman, the Falklands, Sierra Leone on our own, restoring peace, freedom to the citizens of those countries. We played a significant role in the liberation of Kuwait.
When will our frankly pathetic politicians realise that real power is all about speaking softly and carrying a big stick. A stentorian voice backed by a wilted cucumber invites ridicule and is receiving contempt.
This is where political posturing hits power politics.
Britain, Denmark, Europe are all being bullied because they are powerless, impotent.
The USA has about 40% of the combined population of the USA plus the European NATO members and about 41% of the combined troops of the USA and the European NATO members. While that’s slightly overrepresented, it still means that the European NATO members provide the remaining 59%. Which means they’re decidedly not powerless, just slightly less militarized than the USA.
What a fervent defender of victims of misogyny and sexual violence Starmer is! That’s not including the victims of rape gangs of course. He doesn’t give a stuff about them.
Kneel doesn’t give a F. about anyone but Kneel.
How does she know? I thought they were independent?
Edited for spelling.
Ban X? Oh Noes!
How will Starmer tweet his condolences for the next disaster/terrorist attack?
How convenient. Right wing platform banned by left wing government.
It’s never about what the Kommissars say it’s about.
Donald Trump has his gander up. Given the current state of the world Kneel needs to act with extreme caution because he’s heading towards poking two bears and he couldn’t win a war against the Isle of Man currently let alone Putin and Donald Trump.
Oh dear! Although, in the interests of accuracy, the GOP dominated legislature hasn’t exactly been prolific in legislating, because unlike the Democrats they are hopelessly fragmented. So nothing much is going to happen until the Democrats come out on top again in the mid terms and we can then look forward to a rash of impeachment proceedings again President Trump. Plus ca change, or deja vu (French word meaning deja vu) all over again.
Sadly true especially as the RINOs are blocking voter ID legislation to stop the Democrat fraud operation. It is a race to get voter fraud prosecutions under way before November too.
Was this site hammered by a DOS attack yesterday?
Britain (and Europe) has morphed into a sort of school, where the population are treated like children and state officials are teachers and prefects who see themselves as having the authority to clamp down on any “bad behaviour”.
If a few people can’t behave properly then Headmaster Starmer is going to punish the whole school, sorry country, with no access to X until everyone learns to use it properly.
The worst thing about it is that vast swathes of the country are absolutely fine with this. They don’t mind being treated like school children for their entire adult lives.
It’s not Grok that is the problem here, it’s the people using it to do these things. Our government are pushing AI as the greatest technology ever, but all this proves is that it has downsides, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Just like guns don’t fire themselves, people fire guns.
Maybe some features need disabling until people can use them responsibly, but also these are apparently registered users, so can be identified. Also, strictly speaking people are not being undressed, it’s just an algorithm creating an image, but obviously I see the issue here!
Vast swathes – yes
Exactly how many I would love to know
But the problem is not so much that they are happy being treated like children, it’s that they support everyone being treated like a child, so as far as I am concerned they are just fascists
There’s lots of disgusting images on X made using Grok, ChatGPT and Gemini of Keir Starmer in a bikini.
Kneel would be even more disgusting without a bikini.
I find most of them I have seen both hilarious and harmless
What a load of tosh. Anyone can clip out the head of someone from a photo and mount that onto a readily-available image of a naked body. No AI tools needed for that. Insofar that’s illegal, that’s a crime committed by the person who created and published the image and not by the entity which provided the picture-editing tool.
What’s Starmer planning to do next? Hold DIY shops responsible for hammer murders? If not, why not? That’s the exact same kind of logic.
Don’t give them ideas
The overly lauded Edris Elba believes all knives should have their points removed to stop stabbings. Having just yesterday used a pointed knife to dig into a frozen pie to divide it up, I can see an obvious problem with this idea.
The establishment poster boy is on message. I knew there were good reasons to dislike him.
On a slightly different, but relevant note, I read that British armed forces supported the USA seizure of the Russian-flagged oil tanker, the Marinara, in the North Atlantic. The MOD said that the USA HAD ASKED THE UK FOR ASSISTANCE (my emphasis) and RAF surveillance aircraft and a Royal Navy ship took part in the operation. How very convenient for the USA. And yet the USA treats us like dirt and mocks our ability to defend ourselves – or anyone else for that matter. This may well be true but where is the reciprocation? if we are so helpful to the USA when it suits them why are we treated like a doormat for Trump and his minions to wipe their feet on us on most other occasions? If we are so helpful in military matters why doesn’t Starmer and his crowd demand some kind of reciprocation in trade deals for example. All we seem to get are threats and sanctions as if we are just another foreign government. What price the supposed ‘special relationship’ that UK prime ministers constantly boast about? It doesn’t exist. Starmer (and previous PMs before him) are the poodles of the USA and do their… Read more »
The MOD said that the USA HAD ASKED THE UK
FOR ASSISTANCE (my emphasis)to take some f the flak (my correction) and RAF surveillance aircraft and a Royal Navy ship took part in the operationYep its called Realpolitik
Producing fake images of anyone without permission is disgusting and offensive to the individual. Children can’t legally give permission, so it’s always disgusting and offensive. What I don’t understand though is this sudden excitement by this bunch of mendacious gits about the subject when they allow judges to slap the wrists of scum like Hugh Edwards and not send them to prison. Lock up the filth and then we might think you are serious about this subject or maybe too many of your legal friends are worried they may end up doing a stretch if they are found out.
I broadly agree with your point but observe that fake images of politicians intending to make them look ridiculous is offensive to them. I disagree that ‘Producing fake images of anyone without permission is disgusting’ – sometimes it’s hilarious.
For example: I’m sure a fake picture of Sir Keir kneeling before Ursula von der Leyen would be offensive to his supporters but not to very many others.
I tend to agree with you given that the key here is that they are fakes and I presume are not being past off as being real. Haven’t cartoonists produced ‘images’ to lampoon their subjects and where do you start with Spitting Image given that permission was not sought from those they caricatured. What about impersonators like Mike Yarwood or Rory Bremner? We all knew they were not the real thing. And as somebody pointed out, what about the real photos that Huw Edwards possessed? They are real.
You and Gezza are, of course, correct and I was just short handing my comment to the subject – lurid and obscene pictures of innocents. Cartoons and mockery are a totally different subject – the work of Crewkerne Gazette for instance – and are fair game and frequently hilarious.
Lets face it—-Leftist governments all over the western world hate social media where people are free to express opinion. They only want “Government Approved Opinion and thought” and are desperate to ban it all under the guise of “protection” and “safety”