Sarah Rogers, a senior US State Department official, warned that Britain was considering what she described as a “Russia-style” ban on X….reports Asian Lite News
President Donald Trump’s free speech envoy has compared the United Kingdom’s potential move to block X to censorship in Russia, amid a growing transatlantic row over online regulation.
According to a report by the Daily Mail, the controversy stems from an “expedited assessment” by UK media regulator Ofcom into how X and its AI arm xAI responded after its Grok chatbot was used to generate manipulated images, including sexualised content involving women and children.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has said the government would support Ofcom if it chose to block the platform, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was leaving “all options” open.
X owner Elon Musk reacted angrily, accusing Britain of becoming “fascist”. The criticism was echoed by Sarah Rogers, a senior US State Department official, who warned that the UK was considering a “Russia-style X ban”.
Musk further escalated the dispute by reposting satirical images of Starmer and questioning why the UK tops global arrest figures for online speech. Republican lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna has also threatened sanctions against Britain if X is blocked.
However, concerns over the AI-generated images have found support in Washington. US Vice President JD Vancereportedly told Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy that such content was “entirely unacceptable”.
X has since agreed to restrict its image-editing tools to paying users, but Downing Street said the move did not go far enough, insisting the platform must act immediately to prevent what Starmer has described as “disgraceful” and “disgusting” abuse.
