Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes

Viscount Stansgate Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The proposed offence will target tools which are specifically designed to generate non-consensual intimate images. General purpose AI tools which are not designed solely or principally to generate non-consensual images will not be included; this is for those that are designed specifically for that purpose.

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, I hope the whole House welcomes the Secretary of State’s Statement. Can my noble friend say whether it is thought that the social media platform X understands the revulsion caused by its AI Grok tool? I ask this question of my noble friend because the reported comments of the founder of X certainly suggest that he does not, and some aspects of the initial reaction by the company, such as saying it is acceptable as long as it is paid for, suggest that that it simply has no idea about the strength of the public reaction to this.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

I cannot speak for others but, from our perspective, it is clear under the Online Safety Act what illegal content is, and what the child safety duties are. Operating in the United Kingdom means abiding by those; it means doing the risk assessments, taking swift action against priority offences, and abiding by all of the regime in place here in the UK.