The Pulse
Ofcom Narrows X Probe to Illegal-Content Duties
Ofcom has removed three child-safety duties from its investigation into X after the company changed how it restricts pornography for accounts that have not completed age assurance. The regulator will continue examining X’s illegal-content d
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
Ofcom has taken three child-safety duties out of its investigation into X, narrowing a probe launched after reports that Grok was being used to create and share sexual deepfakes. The UK regulator will focus its remaining inquiry on whether X met its duties to protect people from illegal content, including how it assessed risk, handled reports and moderated content. Ofcom said it is making no findings on the duties it has set aside, and could revisit them if new information emerges.
Three duties leave the scope of the probe
The duties no longer under assessment concern X’s risk assessment for children, its safety duties to protect children, and its handling of complaints and reports about content harmful to children. Ofcom made the change after X altered how it restricts pornographic material for accounts that have not completed its age-assurance process. The regulator says it will continue to monitor the effectiveness of those age checks.
Ofcom found that age-gated pornography had remained accessible to some accounts not verified as belonging to adults. It says X has since changed its service so content labelled as pornography is consistently restricted for accounts that have not completed the company’s designated age checks. The regulator said the access problem arose under specific conditions and was not directly related to the reports about ways of accessing Grok on X that prompted the investigation.
Illegal-content duties remain under examination
Ofcom’s remaining inquiry covers X’s duties concerning illegal content, including suspected non-consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material. The regulator is examining the company’s illegal-content risk assessment, the ease of reporting suspected illegal material and the moderation decisions it made after users filed reports. It has gathered evidence using its formal information-gathering powers, but has not concluded that X breached the law.
If Ofcom finds reasonable grounds to believe X failed to comply, it will issue a provisional notice setting out its concerns and the evidence supporting them. X would then have the opportunity to respond before the regulator reaches a final decision. The investigation concerns X’s social-media service, not the standalone Grok service.
Standalone Grok restrictions are a separate matter
Ofcom says gaps in the Online Safety Act’s coverage of chatbots prevent it from investigating the creation of illegal images within standalone Grok. After engagement with the regulator, SpaceXAI, formerly xAI, restricted UK users from generating or viewing images of real people in revealing attire. It later restricted UK IP addresses from viewing, generating or sharing pornography through Grok’s image-generation features, and blocked its companion chatbots, including Ani, from sexually explicit conversations with UK users.
Ofcom says it will monitor those restrictions and continue discussions with SpaceXAI about how the law applies to standalone Grok. Its investigation into X remains focused on material and moderation on the social platform.
X meets response-time targets, but Ofcom questions removals
The same 14 October update reported that X had submitted its first quarterly report on how it responds to user reports of suspected illegal hate and terrorist content. In May, X committed to reviewing such reports through its dedicated UK tool within an average of 24 hours over a three-month period, and to reviewing at least 85% within 48 hours. Ofcom says the first report appears to show faster action than the evidence it analysed earlier in the year, with X meeting the agreed response-time targets.
“We have ongoing concerns, however, around the effectiveness of X’s response to taking down illegal hate and terror content, and we have received mixed reports around the sustained delivery of X’s commitment to engage with third-party experts.”
Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, said it plans to cross-check the company’s figures against its own tests and that X must sustain its performance. Ofcom expects to publish another analysis early in 2027, after it receives further data; the current investigation will determine whether the evidence supports a provisional finding that X failed its remaining illegal-content duties.