{"id":21539,"date":"2026-01-13T08:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/the-guardian-view-on-regulating-big-tech-politicians-must-back-ofcoms-challenge-to-musk-editorial\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T08:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T07:37:14","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-regulating-big-tech-politicians-must-back-ofcoms-challenge-to-musk-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/13\/the-guardian-view-on-regulating-big-tech-politicians-must-back-ofcoms-challenge-to-musk-editorial\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on regulating big tech: politicians must back Ofcom\u2019s challenge to Musk | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"

A flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act to the test<\/p>\n

The unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis<\/a>, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. Monday\u2019s announcement that X is being investigated was Ofcom\u2019s most combative move since key provisions in the Online Safety Act<\/a> came into\u00a0force. None of the other businesses it has challenged or fined have anything like the global reach\u00a0or political clout of Elon Musk\u2019s social media giant. Whatever happens next, this is a defining moment. What is being defined is the extent to which\u00a0some of the wealthiest companies on the planet\u00a0are under democratic control.<\/p>\n

But the announcement is only a first step. Ofcom has given no indication of how long its investigation<\/a> will take. On Friday Downing Street described as insulting the decision to limit the use of the image\u2011making Grok AI chatbot to X\u2019s paying subscribers. The government<\/a> said that this amounted to turning the creation of abusive deepfakes into a \u201cpremium service\u201d.<\/p>\n

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters<\/a> section, please click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nA flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act to the test
\nThe unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. Monday\u2019s announcement that X is being investigated was Ofcom\u2019s most combative move since key provisions in the Online Safety Act came into\u00a0force. None of the other businesses it has challenged or fined have anything like the global reach\u00a0or political clout of Elon Musk\u2019s social media giant. Whatever happens next, this is a defining moment. What is being defined is the extent to which\u00a0some of the wealthiest companies on the planet\u00a0are under democratic control.
\nBut the announcement is only a first step. Ofcom has given no indication of how long its investigation will take. On Friday Downing Street described as insulting the decision to limit the use of the image\u2011making Grok AI chatbot to X\u2019s paying subscribers. The government said that this amounted to turning the creation of abusive deepfakes into a \u201cpremium service\u201d.
\nDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A flood of non-consensual deepfake bikini shots on X is putting the UK\u2019s Online Safety Act to the test The unleashing on X (formerly Twitter) of a torrent of AI-generated images of women and children wearing bikinis, some in sexualised poses or with injuries, has rightly prompted a strong reaction from UK politicians and regulators. …<\/p>\n

The Guardian view on regulating big tech: politicians must back Ofcom\u2019s challenge to Musk | Editorial<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":21540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21539"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}