An Irish minister has deactivated his X account, citing discomfort with a platform that permits sexual deepfakes.
Media Minister Patrick O’Donovan’s decision follows heightened scrutiny in Ireland and the UK over Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool, Grok. The integrated X feature has faced criticism after users generated numerous sexualised images, including those of children.
Grok now informs users that requests for such content will only be fulfilled for paid subscribers, requiring their name and payment details.
Speaking to Limerick Live 95 radio, Mr O’Donovan stated that the "abuse he gets on the platform and the revelations this week about Grok" prompted his departure.
“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 Irish Attorney General is also examining whether existing legislation affords adequate protections to citizens.
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