Communications minister deactivates X account following Grok controversy

By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association

Communications minister Patrick O'Donovan has deactivated his X account, saying he did not feel comfortable being on a platform where sexual deepfakes were allowed.

There has been increased scrutiny in Ireland and the UK over Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool Grok after users generated a spate of sexualised images of people, including children.

Grok is integrated into X, which was formerly known as Twitter.

The AI tool is now informing users that requests to generate sexualised images will only be granted for paid subscribers – meaning their name and payment information must be on file.

Mr O’Donovan told Limerick Live 95 radio that the abuse he gets on the platform and the revelations this week about Grok prompted him to deactivate his account.

I don't feel comfortable with the fact that there's people that are going to use my image, or your image, or somebody else's image, and artificially generate something around it...

“I actually deactivated my X account so I’m not on X anymore,” he said.

“I deactivated it early this morning, because, to be quite honest about it over the last number of months, over the last number of years really, I don’t find it a platform that I would use to share information anymore.

“Because whether it is the fact that I’ve spoken to Joe Nash on Live 95 or whether I’m trying to communicate something that the department is doing, or whether I’m just posting something that I’m doing in my constituency, it inevitably follows a wave of abuse. So I’ve deactivated it.”

He said he was not asking others to follow his actions and deactivate their accounts.

Asked if the concerns around Grok this week had also prompted him to deactivate it, he said: “It was, yeah, it was.

“I’m minister for communications and I’m minister for media, and I just felt that like, if you’re on a platform where this is allowed, regardless of whether you’re paying for it or not, I just don’t feel comfortable with it.

“I don’t feel comfortable with the fact that there’s people that are going to use my image, or your image, or somebody else’s image, and artificially generate something around it – maybe make it into something that it shouldn’t – and publish it then.”

Earlier in the week, the junior minister with responsibility for AI said images created through Grok on X had broken the law.

Niamh Smyth said she had requested a meeting with X over the matter and warned there would be consequences if it was found to have broken the law.

She said: “It is clear that within Irish law, child abuse images are absolutely illegal.

“Whether they are real images or computer-generated, which is what we’re talking about here, it is a criminal offence to distribute them on platforms.

“The law has been, as far as I’m concerned, the law has been broken here in Ireland.”

The Attorney General is also examining whether existing legislation affords adequate protections to citizens.