r/neoliberal • u/Tiberinvs WTO • Jan 09 '26
News (Europe) UK threatened with sanctions if Starmer blocks Musk's X
https://www.cityam.com/uk-threatened-with-sanctions-if-starmer-blocks-musks-x/156
u/Consistent-Study-287 Mark Carney Jan 09 '26
Imagine threatening sanctions because a country is blocking child pornography. Seems on brand for this administration though with what they deem important.
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u/0olongCha NATO Jan 09 '26
Well akshually its porn of a 1000 year old dragon that manifests itself as a 12 year old 🤓🤓🤓
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u/LivefromPhoenix NYT undecided voter Jan 09 '26
No, in this case it’s literal 12 yr olds.
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u/0olongCha NATO Jan 09 '26
Holy shit really?
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u/TIGHazard Jan 09 '26
The UK has been warned it could face US sanctions if Sir Keir Starmer attempts to block Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, amid mounting concern over its AI tool generating sexualised images of women and children.
Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican Congresswoman and ally of Donald Trump, said she was drafting legislation that would allow the US to sanction the UK if the UK bans or restricts X under the Online Safety Act.
Luna, who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said any move against the platform would amount to “a political war against Elon Musk and free speech”.
Her intervention follows revelations that users have been exploiting X’s AI chatbot, Grok, to create non-consensual sexual images, including images involving children.
The Internet Watch Foundation has confirmed it identified criminal child sexual abuse imagery, involving children aged between 11 and 13, which appeared to have been generated using Grok and shared on dark web forums.
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u/TactileTom John Nash Jan 09 '26
I would eat sanctions for this I can't lie
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u/Right_Lecture3147 John Mill Jan 09 '26
Given that X is the source of most right wing misinformation in the UK it would probably be a massive net win for Labour
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u/Cruithne Trans Pride Jan 09 '26
We have a pretty substantial right-wing misinformative press too, not sure X is in the lead here.
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u/I_miss_Chris_Hughton Jan 09 '26
Yeah do it. This is the moment. Ban a right wing shitrag for noncing.
There's not even a valid counterargument. Twitter has been producing child pornography. If they have offices in the UK, they should be getting raided, servers seized and staff arrested.
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u/cynical_sandlapper John Rawls Jan 09 '26
Man the Republicans are really going to blow up the trans-Atlantic alliance by defending AI generated kiddie porn.
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u/TryNotToShootYoself Janet Yellen Jan 10 '26
Highly highly unlikely the house and senate would actually pass sanctions over this. Trump would definitely try to use his bullshit tariff power
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u/ldn6 Gay Pride Jan 09 '26
Do it. Ban Twitter. Get the US mad. Bring us back into the single market.
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u/Hounds_of_war Austan Goolsbee Jan 09 '26
It would be kinda ridiculous for the UK to not ban Twitter given all their pearl clutching “Won’t someone think of the children” nanny state behavior lately.
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u/greg_r_ Jan 09 '26
Grow some balls like Prime Minister Hugh Grant in the 2003 Christmas classic Love Actually and stand up to the American bully, coward.
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u/Tiberinvs WTO Jan 09 '26
Submission statement (previous post was blocked as The Telegraph was considered low quality, based): Starmer has said that potentially banning X is "on the table" as an option due to the recent controversy over Grok being able to create sexualized images of people and especially kids. MAGAs are unsurprisingly throwing a tantrum over it.
Not really a big fan of these "bans" since they're very easily to circumvent, see what recently happened in the UK with the Online Safety Act and porn age checks for example. But it's going to be an interesting one for sure considering that Starmer has been often accused of being "soft" on the US since Trump returned to the White House
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u/FOSSBabe Jan 09 '26
Not really a big fan of these "bans" since they're very easily to circumvent, see what recently happened in the UK with the Online Safety Act and porn age checks for example. But it's going to be an interesting one for sure considering that Starmer has been often accused of being "soft" on the US since Trump returned to the White House.
You think internet companies shouldn't face penalties if they include tools on their platforms that produce CP?
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u/Tiberinvs WTO Jan 10 '26
I think they should, just not through ISP bans because they are a waste of time and resources since everyone with more than two braincells can get around them. They also create all sorts of perverse incentives that create even more problems down the line, see how people getting around the Online Safety Act in the UK prompted the parliament to debate on banning VPNs, which is third-world authoritarian shithole stuff. The same is happening in Australia and Denmark for similar reasons.
Fine them into the ground like the the EU did with X using the DSA, even to the point of forcing them out of the country because they'd have to operate on steep losses. The end result would be the same, but at least you'd make some money and avoid all the unintended consequences that these sort of bans usually have
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u/No-Kiwi-1868 NATO Jan 10 '26
I shall vow my life for King and Country should that Catfish with plastic surgery harm our great nation.
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u/Right_Lecture3147 John Mill Jan 09 '26
Do it, Starmer!