Information Commissioner's Office to investigate whether Elon Musk's companies have complied with data protection law The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has opened formal investigations into X and xAI over whether Elon Musk's companies have complied with data protection law after the Grok AI tool was used to generate sexual deepfake images without consent. The ICO said the reports raised "serious concerns" under UK data protection laws, such as whether "appropriate safeguards were built into Grok's design and deployment". William Malcolm, the executive director of regulatory risk and innovation at the ICO, said: "The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people's personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this. "Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm. This is particularly the case where children are involved." In a separate statement, the regulator Ofcom said it was not investigating xAI, which provides the standalone Grok app. Ofcom also said its investigation into X, the social network formerly known as Twitter on which users can interact with Grok, was still gathering evidence and warned that the inquiry could take months. The company has taken steps to address the issue and must be given a "full opportunity to make representations", Ofcom added. On why it was not investigating xAI, the statement said: "When we opened our investigation into X, we said we were assessing whether we should also investigate xAI, as the provider of the standalone Grok service.

The French investigation into alleged algorithm manipulation by X has expanded to examine the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes. The French investigation into alleged algorithm manipulation by X has expanded to examine the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes. French headquarters of Elon Musk's X raided by Paris cybercrime unit Tue 3 Feb 2026 09.25 ESTFirst published on Tue 3 Feb 2026 06.42 EST Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk's social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company's former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime. "A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office, the national police cyber unit and Europol," the Paris prosecutors' office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network. It said in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for "voluntary questioning" in their capacity as "de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events".

Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first two countries in the world to announce blocks on the Grok AI. Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first two countries in the world to announce blocks on the Grok AI. D ays after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate "grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images", the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the country. That DNS block in Malaysia is pretty lightweight - easy to bypass with a VPN or DNS tweak," Grok's account on X said in response to a question from a user. Grok's ability to allow users to create sexually explicit images, including images of children, has created a global outcry over recent weeks, with regulators and politicians around the world launching investigations. Indonesia and Malaysia became the first two countries to announce blocks on the technology, with Malaysia's regulatory body saying last Sunday it had "directed a temporary restriction" on access to Grok, effective as of 11 January 2026. Officials in the Philippines have said they too plan to ban the technology. Blocking access to Grok is not straightforward, however. The technology not only exists across multiple platforms, including a standalone app and website, but is also integrated across X, which, along with Grok, is owned by Elon Musk's xAI. The protest group Everyone Hates Elon advertises a boycott of X in London. Over the past week, X users, and even Grok itself, have advised people on how to bypass restrictions. This includes using a VPN - many of which are available for free - or changing domain name system (DNS), the protocol on the internet that turns address names into IP addresses that load websites. When the Guardian tried to use Grok in Indonesia, its website was working even without a VPN, though the Grok app did not work. Grok was also still responding to Indonesian accounts on X, where it functions as an integrated chatbot. X has not been subject to a ban. Even if governments could completely restrict Grok, though, this is not a real solution, said Nana Nwachukwu, an AI governance expert and PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin. "Blocking Grok is like slapping a Band-Aid on a weeping wound that you haven't cleaned," she said. "You block Grok, and then you go around shouting you've done something.

A standalone version of Grok, Grok Imagine, easily accessible through a web browser, was still responding to prompts to remove the clothes from senior female politicians. A standalone version of Grok, Grok Imagine, easily accessible through a web browser, was still responding to prompts to remove the clothes from senior female politicians. X has continued to allow users to post highly sexualised videos of women in bikinis generated by its AI tool Grok, despite the company's claim to have cracked down on misuse. The Guardian was able to create short videos of people stripping to bikinis from photographs of fully clothed, real women. It was also possible to post this adult content on to X's public platform without any sign of it being moderated, meaning the clip could be viewed within seconds by anyone with an account.

A deluge of sexual images created by Musk's Grok AI tool has prompted a public and political outcry. A deluge of sexual images created by Musk's Grok AI tool has prompted a public and political outcry. Mon 12 Jan 2026 07.23 ESTFirst published on Mon 12 Jan 2026 06.02 EST The UK media watchdog has opened a formal investigation into Elon Musk's X over the use of the Grok AI tool to manipulate images of women and children by removing their clothes. Ofcom has acted following a public and political outcry over a deluge of sexual images appearing on the platform, created by Musk's Grok, which is integrated with X. The regulator is investigating X under the Online Safety Act (OSA), which carries a range of possible punishments for breaches, including a UK ban of apps and websites for the most serious abuses.