An AI tool that allows users to manipulate images, digitally remove clothes and alter and sexualise bodies without the subject’s consent is quite simply a form of abuse.
I welcome the Technology Secretary’s announcement today that the creation of nonconsensual and intimate images will be a priority criminal offence in the Online Safety Act. Anyone who creates or seeks to create this kind of content should have no doubt that it’s illegal and they should – and now will – feel the full force of the law.
For those of us who have been campaigning on online safety and smartphone-related harms, this is another example of why it’s vital that we hold tech companies to account, ensure they tighten up safeguards, and make sure we are effectively enforcing laws that protect people from harms.
My use of X
Like many of you, I have been reflecting on my own use of X and have decided to stop using it. For more than 15 years, I have used the platform to keep local people updated, first as a councillor and more recently as your MP. But I have become increasingly concerned about the lack of moderation, the proliferation of misinformation, and abusive content.
Claims that action against X/Grok are about limiting free speech are nonsense – free speech will continue in the many other ways it already does. This is about whether I wish to support a profit-making platform which treats sexual abuse and illegal imagery so flippantly. I am under no compulsion to use any particular platform, and X has seriously deteriorated over recent years to the point that it is no longer one I choose to use to interact with my constituents.
I’ll continue to engage online with constituents on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn and will keep opportunities on other social platforms under review.