Bosses from seven top social media firms joined government ministers for a roundtable discussion on tackling the abuse of women on their platforms today.
But there was one notable absence from the group: Elon Musk’s site X.
The tech giant attracted the wrong kind of attention at the beginning of this year when its AI chat bot Grok began generating images in which real women were undressed and put in bikinis.
After condemnation by the UK government and a rapid change in the law, it introduced restrictions to prevent the editing of people in revealing clothing.
X has also come under fire in the past for the amount of abusive tweets directed at women in the public eye.
Speaking to Metro today, Tech Secretary Liz Kendall said: ‘We saw what happened with Grok and X, where these vile, sexualized images without consent just spread like wildfire.
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‘And we said, not only is it against our values as a government, it’s against the law, so they had to stop it.
‘I would say it was interesting that the one company that didn’t turn up today, despite repeated offers, was X.’
She said bosses from the platform were ‘always ready for a discussion’, adding: ‘I hope next time they do turn up.’
Kendall chaired this morning’s panel, which also included Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips and Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan.
Among the social media firms that did turn up for the event were Meta, Google, TikTok, OnlyFans, Snap, Reddit, and Match Group.
The Tech Secretary reminded them of guidance introduced ‘months ago’ by Ofcom, which included introducing time-out features for users who harass women and testing features to see if they can be misused to harm people.
She told the tech bosses: ‘My message is simple: make your platforms safer.
‘I will monitor your progress closely to ensure change is delivered on this critical agenda.’
Asked if the companies promised any action on abuse during the session, Kendall told Metro: ‘I think it’s important that we can have a conversation in here, where we set out our expectations for them to meet those guidelines and go further and to do that quickly.
‘I hope you’ll see more action, but you will certainly see that from the government.’
Phillips added: ‘For too long, I think that these companies, the rules that bound them were considerably looser.
‘And now we have the Online Safety Act, and we have expectations that the same regulation that I would put in place so that my children were safe on the road, will be the same regulation that I would want to see them be safe on their phones.
‘So look, they’re catching up, and I don’t want to categorise them or characterise them as being a part of the problem. They’ve turned up today to be part of the solution.’
Metro has contacted X for comment.
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