I’ll never forget sitting in Radio City Music Hall for the first time, just a wide-eyed 8-year-old seeing the world-famous Christmas Spectacular. Sleigh bells jingled, the curtain lifted and the Rockettes appeared—perfectly in sync, their elegant kicks slicing through the air, sequin-covered costumes twinkling under the stage lights.
I didn’t know back then what it took to join one of the most elite dance troupes in the world, but one thing was certain: I wanted to be a Rockette.
When I was little, dance wasn’t on my radar. I was more into kung fu and soccer, but my mom encouraged me to try ballet. Something about the pirouettes stuck. From that moment on, I trained in tap, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop…you name it. Dancing became my passion, so moving from my home in New Jersey to study it at a conservatory in London was a no-brainer.
During my second year at university, I heard the Rockettes were holding an open audition. But with hundreds of dancers from around the world competing for just a few spots, I figured there was no way I could make the cut. The Rockettes are known for their precision technique (aka perfect synchronicity), and I’d never trained in that. But my mom pumped me up to give it a shot.
So imagine my shock when my number kept getting called at auditions. After an exhausting day of choreo, I was invited to the Rockettes Conservatory, a weeklong program to train with dancers on the line. I learned how to perfect the iconic parallel kick (every Rockette’s toe has to hit at eye level) and earned a second audition at the end of it.
Hearing the words, “Danicka, you’re going to be a Rockette,” was one of the best moments of my life. But turns out the hard part was just beginning. I started the grueling rehearsal process: six days a week, for six hours a day.
My body ached from the physical exertion. And because I had no background in precision technique, every piece of choreo felt foreign. I couldn’t help but compare myself to the incredible dancers around me and wonder if I’d made a huge mistake.
That is, until a more experienced Rockette noticed me struggling with the steps and offered to help. She reassured me that it’s OK if you don’t nail every move right off the bat.
Growing up as an only child, I had no idea what it was like to have siblings looking out for you. Suddenly, I felt as if I had 83 sisters. I started relying on them for help with everything from nailing tricky sequences to mastering the Rockettes’ signature French twist. Thanks to all that support, my confidence soared.
My first season as a Rockette was magical. Stepping onto the Great Stage for classic numbers like “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers” (every Rockette has performed it since 1933!) has given dancing a whole new meaning. It’s surreal to think of the 100-year legacy I’m a part of.
I’m in my second season now, and I sometimes catch myself looking into the audience to see if other younger girls are watching with wonder—just like I did.
Back then, I just thought the Rockettes were cool and sparkly. But now, I realize that the magic isn’t in the kicks or the outfits. It’s in the sisterhood, the history and the chance to inspire the next generation of dancers. I hope those other 8-year-old girls leave The Christmas Spectacular believing that their dreams are possible, too.
Sisters Daisy and Dolly are both OnlyFans models, and have previously said the rake in around £10k some months from their content together. The pair went by the online persona “Double Ds” after they lost their jobs in lockdown and decided to join OnlyFans to make money. They previously worked as strippers, but now share their explicit adult account.
In an interview with The Daily Star, Daisy and Dolly opened up about a few “interesting things” that have happened whilst they’ve been working on OnlyFans. “I’ve sold my foot skin,” Daisy said. “The shavings from the bottom of my feet. I’ve actually sold my toenails as well, I had to grow them really long and then cut them to send them off. I think, saliva as well. I’ve sold saliva. The other day a subscriber sent me this bondage thing in the post, like full bed bondage.”
On Dolly’s personal account, she lists the types of services she provides. They include: “1 – 2 – 1 messaging, an*l play, v*ginal play, bl*wjob videos, feet pics and videos, fetish and role play content”.
The pair are so close they’ve also said they spent £140k on plastic surgery to look more like one another. They’ve had their noses done, lip fillers, and matching boob jobs and labiaplasties. Yes, that. “We love plastic surgery, we find it quite fun and thrilling,” Dolly said in an interview.
She added that their surgery has “enhanced” their OF content too, as they’ve “boxed themselves” to have an audience of subscribers who prefer “overly enhanced women”. Daisy added: “Our subscribers often compare us and that makes us feel like we’re not good enough and that we need more surgery to make more money and be the better models.”
Daisy also now has her own OnlyFans page, which describes itself as the “dirtiest, sl*ttiest, most personal page ever.”
Another NYPD officer found herself at the center of a similar scandal when a video emerged of her pole-dancing
AN NYPD rookie cop is at risk of losing her job after shocked colleagues found her OnlyFans account featuring raunchy lingerie-clad pictures.
The NSFW side-hustle was discovered when fellow officers started sharing the adult content, prompting the officer to delete the page.
Police Officer Dannah Battino, who works in the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst faces losing her job after her OnlyFans account was discovered by colleagues
Dannah Battino from the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst, joined the force in April.
But now, some of her colleagues are calling for her dismissal as she undergoes an internal review.
Some of the pictures show the 28-year-old stripped down to her lingerie, pouting, suggestively pulling at a bra strap, and squatting on the floor in fishnets.
In some pictures she poses alongside a female friend who is also in lingerie.
Piper Rockelle clapped back at critics of her OnlyFans debut in a new interview with Rolling Stone, saying that some of her followers were “having a harder time letting my childhood go than me”
The 18-year-old internet personality rose to fame online as a child on YouTube, appearing in videos uploaded by her mom, Tiffany Smith
Rockelle previously claimed on Jan. 1, the day she opened her OnlyFans account, that she had made over $2.9 million in her first 24 hours on the platform
Piper Rockelle is clapping back at critics of her debut on OnlyFans.
The 18-year-old internet personality — who rose to fame online as a child on YouTube — opened an account on the subscription-based platform, widely known for adult content, on Jan. 1. According to screenshots she posted to X later that day, Rockelle made over $2.9 million in earnings from her first day on the platform, though she also received blowback from some of her followers for influencing young girls to create accounts on the platform.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, published on Jan. 6, Rockelle responded to her detractors: “If you don’t accept me, you don’t have to be here.”
Rockelle first gained notoriety on social media about a decade ago on a YouTube channel operated by her mom, Tiffany Smith. She amassed millions of followers over the next few years, eventually starting to make content with a group of other young content creators, dubbed the “Piper Squad.”
Her debut on OnlyFans particularly drew criticism because of her origins as a child star, to which Rockelle responded in her Rolling Stone interview that her followers were “having a harder time letting my childhood go than me.”
“I think that’s understandable. But I’m not going to be a kid forever,” she said. “I understand that it might be hard for some people to see someone who they’ve grown up with have so many different weird little lifestyles that they’ve had. But there’s a lot of amazing people out there that are very accepting.”
Continued Rockelle: “The people who have taken time to bash me on the internet and say that I’ve been exploited my whole entire life and say that I did this and this and this and this, they can’t turn around and become an OnlyFans model. They can’t do that because they’ve preached their whole entire lives about not exploiting yourself and not showing off your body. It’s just proving everybody wrong.”
The creator also addressed the claim that, by opening an account, she was seemingly endorsing a similar move for young girls who follow her.
“I can’t influence anyone to do anything,” she said. “If they want to be like me, then be like me. That’s their choice. I try to just preach what makes me feel better.”
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In the interview, Rockelle called her first-day earnings “actually quite insane,” admitting that “really wasn’t” expecting so many people to subscribe in the first 24 hours. She also shared that her “first big purchase” with her earnings was a car for her grandma.
The internet star admitted that she couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t someday wish she hadn’t started an OnlyFans account, but ultimately said that she has been “trying” to “live with no regrets.”
“I’ve never had a good reputation. It would have been one thing if I was this sweet little peach girl who never did anything wrong in her whole entire life, but I wasn’t,” said Rockelle. “Why not just f—ing add onto it?”
Noughties chart star and TV favourite Kate Nash has turned to OnlyFans to fund her future music releases. The 38-year-old singer/songwriter has asked fans to sign up to the exclusive subscription site, where they can access X-rated photos of herself so that she can return to the studio and release her next album.
Oil is US president’s motivation but his concept of economic success feels as outdated as his music tastes
The word “loot” entered the English language from Hindi in the late 18th century, as the rapacious East India Company plundered its way across the subcontinent.
It was a trading company, not a state – but it had the imprimatur of the English crown and its own large private army, mingling commerce and military force and opening the way for British imperial dominance of India.
Donald Trump’s dead-of-night raid on Venezuela last week was the act of a government, not a corporation. But it harked back to a more brazen age, when looting a continent for its resources at the point of a cannon was regarded as a legitimate activity for an English gentleman.
The US president made no effort to disguise the fact that the main motivation for the snatching of Nicolás Maduro was taking control of Venezuelan oil reserves on behalf of the fossil fuel companies that helped bankroll Trump’s re-election.
Trump had already wielded US economic power particularly blatantly in trade negotiations over the first 12 months of his second term, using the threat of tariffs to bully and cajole rivals and supposed allies alike – including the UK.
Last weekend’s events made clear he was also prepared to seize resources using military force, apparently with the intention of allowing favoured corporate allies (oligarchs, as we would call them in a Russian context) to exploit them.
It sets a deeply alarming precedent, in terms of what Trump himself may feel emboldened to do, with a string of other targets apparently in his sights, and what rival powers even less concerned about international law could now venture, in pursuit of economic dominance.
Just as Trump’s music tastes are stuck in the days of his youth – he still likes a boogie to YMCA – his conception of what factors make the US economically successful feels hopelessly outdated.
The global oil market is already well supplied, and the US has anyway become a significant net exporter since the shale boom, insulating its economy from the global energy price rises that hit Europe hard after the Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
There are some concerns about whether US hard-to-extract shale oil is economic at the current, relatively low oil price of less than $60 (£44) a barrel for the US West Texas Intermediate benchmark, however. Yet Trump appears to want to drive that price lower.
He is unlikely to succeed any time soon anyway: Venezuelan oil is heavy, making it expensive to produce and refine; and analysts believe it will take many years, and billions of dollars, to increase output significantly.
As the Washington-based Institute of International Finance put it last week: “While medium- to long-term upside to Venezuelan supply exists, the balance of risks points to a gradual and conditional recovery rather than swift normalisation, with the potential for renewed setbacks if political or policy frictions intensify.”
Instead of oil, the resource bottlenecks that most concern today’s corporations are in the raw materials required for the mass electrification of energy, as the world shifts to net zero (something Trump rejects, of course) – copper, aluminiumand lithium – not to mention staple foods such as cocoa and coffee, of which prices have been jacked up by global heating.
Scouring remote areas for missing walkers and climbers can take rescuers weeks and sometimes months. AI can do the job in a matter of hours in some cases – and potentially save lives.
Racing against worsening weather, mountain rescue teams in the Italian region of Piemonte were facing a puzzle. An experienced Italian climber and orthopaedic surgeon Nicola Ivaldo had gone missing. The 66-year-old had failed to show up show up at work on Monday and an alarm was raised.
Ivaldo had set out alone one Sunday in September 2024. Unfortunately, he hadn’t shared details of where he was headed with friends or family. The only clue to his whereabouts was the car that rescuers had found parked at the village of Castello di Pontechianale, in the Valle Varaita. From there, rescuers speculated, Ivaldo had probably gone to climb one of the two most prominent peaks of the Cottian alps – the jagged 3,841m-high (12,602ft) Monviso or its neighbour Visolotto, at 3,348m (10,984ft). This matched the last signal from his mobile phone, traced roughly in this area.
But this left the search and rescue teams with an enormous area to scour – the vast, rocky faces of each mountain have a number of routes leading to the summits from different sides. The whole area is criss-crossed by hundreds of miles of trails, explains Simone Bobbio, a spokesperson for the Mountain and Speleological Rescue Service of Piemonte.
The day Ivaldo went missing, excellent weather had attracted crowds on the most popular routes. No one had reported seeing him on the well-travelled paths. It meant that Ivaldo, a well-trained mountaineer, had probably gone to one of the more remote parts of the mountains.
More than fifty rescuers searched the area on foot for nearly a week, while a helicopter flew multiple sorties in the hope of spotting him from the air. By the time the early snow arrived in late September, any hope of finding him alive had faded and they aborted the search.
In July 2025, however, the search for Ivaldo’s body resumed after the snow had largely melted from steep mountain gullies, or couloirs.
But this time the Piemonte rescue service brought in some additional help – artificial intelligence. They employed AI software capable of analysing thousands of photos taken by drones that could fly close to the rock walls and up the many gullies that streak the mountain flanks. It took just five hours for the two drones to capture the images and they were analysed the same day to identify spots where rescue teams could focus their search. Unfortunately poor weather conditions delayed the operation to then visit these sites with the drones to take a closer look.
Three days after the search resumed, however, the body of the missing doctor was found at one of the sites identified by the AI, lying in a gully on the north wall of Monviso at an altitude of around 3,150m (10,334ft). His body was recovered by helicopter.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall says she would back regulator Ofcom if it blocks UK access to Elon Musk’s social media site X for failing to comply with online safety laws.
Ofcom says it is urgently deciding what to do about X’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok, which digitally undressed people without their consent when tagged beneath images posted on the platform. X has now limited the use of this image function to those who pay a monthly fee.
But Downing Street said the change was “insulting” to victims of sexual violence.
Musk said on X the UK government “want any excuse for censorship” as he replied to a post questioning why other AI platforms were not being looked at.
Kendall said: “Sexually manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent.
She added: “I, and more importantly the public, would expect to see Ofcom update on next steps in days not weeks.”
She said the Online Safety Act “includes the power to block services from being accessed in the UK, if they refuse to comply with UK law” and “if Ofcom decide to use those powers they will have our full support”.
The BBC has approached X for comment.
An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We urgently made contact [with X] on Monday and set a firm deadline of today [Friday] to explain themselves, to which we have received a response.”
“We’re now undertaking an expedited assessment as a matter of urgency and will provide further updates shortly.”
Ofcom’s powers under the Online Safety Act include being able to seek a court order to prevent third parties from helping X raise money or be accessed in the UK – should the firm refuse to comply.
These so-called business disruption measures remain largely untested.
The use of Grok to generate non-consensual sexualised images has been condemned by politicians on all sides, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling it “disgraceful” and “disgusting”.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said it was “horrible in every way” and that X “needs to go further” than the changes it had made to Grok earlier on Friday.
But he said the idea of banning X in the UK was “frankly appalling” and an attack on free speech.
The Liberal Democrats have called for access to X to be temporarily restricted in the UK while the social media site was investigated.
‘Humiliated and dehumanised’
Grok is a free tool which users can tag directly in posts or replies under other users’ posts to ask it for a particular response.
The tool can still edit images on X if accessed through other areas of the platform, such as via its in-built “edit image” function, or on its separate app and website.
Many requests have been made asking it to edit images of women to show them in bikinis or little clothing – something those subject to such requests have told the BBC left them feeling “humiliated” and “dehumanised“.
However as of Friday morning, Grok has told users asking it to alter images uploaded to X that “image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers”, adding users “can subscribe to unlock these features”.
Some posts on the platform seen by BBC News suggest only those with a blue tick “verified” mark – exclusive to X’s paid subscriber tier – were able to successfully request image edits to Grok.
Dr Daisy Dixon, a lecturer in philosophy at Cardiff University and female X user who said she had seen an increase in people using Grok to undress her, welcomed the change but said it felt “like a sticking plaster”.
“Grok needs to be totally redesigned and have built-in ethical guardrails to prevent this from ever happening again,” she told the BBC.
“Elon Musk also needs to acknowledge this for what it is – yet another instance of gender-based violation.”
Hannah Swirsky, head of policy at the Internet Watch Foundation, said it “does not undo the harm which has been done”.
“We do not believe it is good enough to simply limit access to a tool which should never have had the capacity to create the kind of imagery we have seen in recent days,” she said.
The charity previously said its analysts had discovered “criminal imagery” of girls aged between 11 and 13 which “appeared to have been created” using Grok.
Labour MPs are increasingly unhappy with the party’s use of X to get its political messages out.
Leaked messages from the Parliamentary Labour Party’s WhatsApp group, used to post announcements for backbench Labour MPs to share on social media, show at least 13 Labour MPs have called on the government to stop using the platform.
The messages, first reported by Politics Home and seen by BBC News, show Labour MPs calling on the government to “take a stand” and “put our messages out in other places”.
One MP said: “As some of us have requested since Musk went all fascist, rather than X, our government should start using another platform”.
Another said: “Any images of children (and women) in government comms on X put those children in harms way.”
Earlier on Friday, Downing Street suggested that the government would continue posting on X.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson told reporters changes to the way Grok complied with user requests to edit images on the platform showed X “can move swiftly when it wants to”.
They said it was “abundantly clear that X needs to act and needs to act now”.
“It is time for X to grip this issue, if another media company had billboards in town centres showing unlawful images, it would act immediately to take them down or face public backlash,” they added.
A senior Google employee has claimed she was made redundant after reporting a manager who told clients stories about his swinger lifestyle and showed a nude of his wife.
Victoria Woodall told an employment tribunal she was subjected to a campaign of retaliation by the company after whistleblowing on the man who was later sacked.
Google UK’s internal investigation found the manager had touched two female colleagues without their consent, and his behaviour amounted to sexual harassment, documents seen by the BBC in court show.
The tech giant denies retaliating against Woodall and argues she became “paranoid” after whistleblowing and began to view normal business activities as “sinister”.
In her claim, Woodall says her own boss subjected her to a “relentless campaign of retaliation” after her complaint also implicated his close friends who were later disciplined for witnessing the manager’s behaviour and failing to challenge it.
The claim also included Woodall’s allegations of a “boys’ club” culture, including that up until December 2022, Google had been funding a men’s only “chairman’s lunch”.
Google said an internal investigation found no such culture and the event was ended as it was no longer in line with its policies.
A judgement from London Central Employment Tribunal is expected in the coming weeks.
‘Swingers’
Woodall worked as a senior industry head in Google’s UK Sales and Agencies team.
In August 2022, according to her claim, she was contacted by a female client who said that, during a business lunch, a manager in the team had boasted about the number of black women he had had sex with.
He said “he and his wife were swingers” and also described how they had sex with two women they met on the beach on holiday, according to summary notes of Google’s investigation submitted to court.
The client said the conversation was unprompted and happened in front of his line manager who did nothing to stop him, describing their behaviour as “disgusting,” in court documents.
Woodall reported the client’s concerns to her boss Matt Bush, then managing director of the agency team, and Google opened an internal investigation into the manager’s conduct, it adds.
While this investigation was underway, Woodall raised a second complaint from another female client who alleged the same manager had shown her a “picture of his wife’s vagina” while scrolling through photos on his phone, according to her claim.
The report
Google interviewed 12 people as part of its investigation and uncovered further incidents which it found amounted to sexual harassment in breach of company policies, according to emails, notes and a copy of the report submitted to the tribunal.
The manager was found on the balance of probabilities to have sexually harassed two female employees during a work event, where he allegedly touched one colleague’s leg during a conversation and rubbed another colleague’s back and shoulders, both without their consent.
Google also found he had allegedly made inappropriate comments to staff, including telling a female colleague he had met for the first time that he was in an open marriage and that if she had “sex with him in the bathroom, his wife would enjoy hearing about it”.
The manager denied the allegations during Google’s investigation and said he did not think he had shared with his workmates that he has an open relationship with his wife, according to the report.
He was sacked for gross misconduct, court documents show, while his line manager and another senior colleague were recommended for “documented coaching” for failing to intervene. They were both later made redundant.
‘Boys’ club’
Woodall claims that shortly after reporting the sexual harassment in 2022, her boss, Matt Bush, gave her “little choice” but to swap her successful client account with a failing one – which up until that point had belonged to one of the two colleagues to later receive disciplinary action following her whistleblowing.
She described the move as a “poisoned chalice” that had left her vulnerable to redundancy, the court heard.
She says she was then demoted to a subordinate role on a big internal project supporting the other senior manager her report had implicated. Her boss later tried to downgrade her performance among other retaliatory actions, according to her claim.
In his witness statement, Bush says he always supported Woodall’s career and took fostering inclusivity and gender equality in hiring pipelines and promotions very seriously, adding that it was standard practice to regularly move accounts between the team.
‘Way to exit people’
In 2023, Google started a redundancy process that resulted in the departures of her boss and one of the senior managers who failed to report the sexual harassment, according to court documents.
In May that year, Woodall took her concerns about a boys’ club culture and the retaliation she was facing to the top of the organisation.
In her witness statement, she says she met with Debbie Weinstein, then vice president of Google UK and Ireland after hearing from a HR colleague that she was concerned about the team and the experiences of women.
Following their discussion, Weinstein, now president of Europe, Middle East and Africa, appeared shocked by Woodall’s claims. Court documents show she messaged a member of HR: “Just met Vicki [Woodall]. Holy moly. Want to get you for 10 mins today.”
Then in November 2023, as Google prepared for a broader reorganisation and redundancy process, Woodall claims there was a final push to remove her from the agency team.
That month, Weinstein messaged Dyana Najdi, Google’s managing director for UK and Ireland advertising, to say: “keep pushing…for solution on how you can run a process including agency [Woodall’s team]… gotta use this as a chance to exit people”, according to messages of their conversation submitted to court.
In March 2024, Woodall was made redundant alongside the second senior manager involved in the misconduct investigation, however she remains employed by the company receiving long-term sickness payments for work-related stress, according to her claim.
Google denies that Woodall was made redundant for whistleblowing, adding that her role was one of 26 across the team and wider department closed, according to its defence.
It disputes that Weinstein attempted to make Woodall redundant, saying she was very supportive towards her and instigated the investigation into the culture of the agency team.
The company accepts that Woodall’s report of the manager accused of misconduct was an act of whistleblowing, but denies any retaliation against her, saying the subsequent events were perfectly normal business decisions.
Jan 10 (Reuters) – Elon Musk said on Saturday that social media platform X will open to the public its new algorithm, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, in seven days.
“This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” he said in his X post.
Earlier this week, the European Commission decided to extend a retention order sent to X last year, which related to algorithms and dissemination of illegal content, prolonging it to the end of 2026, spokesperson Thomas Regnier told reporters on Thursday.
Elon Musk has said critics of his social media site X are looking for “any excuse for censorship”, after its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok drew criticism over its use to create sexualised images of people without their knowledge or consent.
Ofcom says it is conducting an urgent assessment of X in response, with the backing of Technology Secretary Liz Kendall.
But the chairwomen of Parliament’s technology and media committees have both said they are concerned that “gaps” in the Online Safety Act might hinder the media regulator’s ability to deal with the matter.
X has now limited the use of AI image function to those who pay a monthly fee, a change dubbed by Downing Street as “insulting” to victims of sexual violence.
The BBC has seen several examples of the free AI tool undressing women and putting them in sexual situations without their consent.
Musk reposted a number of messages on the site overnight criticising the government’s reproval of Grok – including one which showed AI-generated images of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a bikini.
“They just want to suppress free speech,” Musk wrote.
Ashley St Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk’s children, told BBC Newshour on Friday that Grok had generated sexualised photos of her as a child.
The conservative influencer said her image had been “stripped” to appear “basically nude, bent over”, despite her telling Grok that she did not consent to the sexualised images.
St Clair, who filed a lawsuit against Musk in 2025 seeking sole custody of their child, accused the social media site of “not taking enough action” to tackle illegal content, including child sexual abuse imagery.
“This could be stopped with a singular message to an engineer,” she said.
As of Friday morning, Grok was telling users asking it to alter images uploaded to X that “image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers”, adding users “can subscribe to unlock these features”.
An Ofcom spokesperson said on Friday: “We urgently made contact [with X] on Monday and set a firm deadline of today to explain themselves, to which we have received a response.
“We’re now undertaking an expedited assessment as a matter of urgency and will provide further updates shortly.”
Ofcom’s powers under the Online Safety Act include being able to seek a court order to prevent third parties from helping X raise money or be accessed in the UK – should the firm refuse to comply.
But Dame Chi Onwurah, chairwoman of the innovation and technology committee, said she was “concerned and confused” about how the matter is “actually being addressed”, and has written to Ofcom and Kendall for clarification.
Dame Chi said it was “unclear” under the Online Safety Act whether the creation of such images using AI was illegal, as was the responsibility of social media sites for what was shared on their platforms.
“The act should really make something so harmful to so many people clearly illegal, and X’s responsibility should be clear,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Caroline Dinenage, chairwoman of the culture, media and sport committee, likewise said she had a “real fear that there is a gap in the regulation”.
“There are doubts as to whether the Online Safety Act actually has the power to regulate functionality – that means generative AI’s ability to nudify someone’s image,” she told BBC Breakfast.
The use of Grok to generate non-consensual sexualised images has been condemned by politicians on all sides:
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called it “disgraceful” and “disgusting”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said it was “horrible in every way” and that X “needs to go further” than the changes it had made to Grok on Friday, but he added that banning the platform would be an attack on free speech
The Liberal Democrats called for access to X to be temporarily restricted in the UK while the social media site was investigated.
Elsewhere, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he agreed with Starmer that the material was “completely abhorrent”.
“It, once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility,” Albanese said, adding that Australia’s digital safety commissioner was looking at the situation.
“Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better.”
Meanwhile, Grok was temporarily suspended in Indonesia on Saturday. The country’s digital minister said “non-consensual sexual deepfakes [were] a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the security of citizens in the digital space”.
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