Highlights
- US officials warn they have "right to up the ante" with travel bans if UK blocks X over Grok AI creating explicit images.
- Technology Secretary Liz Kendall to introduce criminal offence for creating sexualised non-consensual AI images this week.
- Plans reportedly drawn up to subpoena Ofcom staff entering US for questioning on involvement in censoring tech company.
US officials have warned that British government figures could face travel bans if Keir Starmer's government blocks Elon Musk's social media platform X over its AI service creating explicit images of women and children.
The unprecedented threat to bar sitting British government officials from entering the United States would mark an extraordinary escalation in transatlantic tensions over freedom of speech.
US officials told The Telegraph on Monday night that they had the "right to up the ante" and introduce travel bans if the government makes good on its threat to block X. Another warned that "all options are on the table" if Britain proceeds with its plans.
Technology secretary Liz Kendall noted that the government would this week bring into force a new offence criminalising the creation of sexualised non-consensual AI images in a clampdown on the platform.
She said creating the images would be made a priority offence under the Online Safety Act, meaning sites such as X would have to prove they are taking steps to prevent such content.
Regulator faces subpoena
Ofcom, the technology and media regulator, contacted X a week ago with a Friday deadline to provide evidence about how it was dealing with online safety laws.
The regulator launched its investigation after an "expedited assessment" and said it had the power to block X from the UK if the company did not comply.
Officials have already drawn up plans to subpoena Ofcom staff should they set foot in the US, where they will be questioned on their involvement in censoring the tech company, The Telegraph pointed.
"Figures in Washington are planning to question officials that travel to the United States, either at the border or in the country itself, possibly even subpoenaed," a source with knowledge of the discussions said.
Sarah Rogers, the undersecretary for public diplomacy at the Department of State, compared the UK government's tactics to those used by Vladimir Putin, describing the plans as a "Russia-style" ban.
She suggested the US government has means to circumvent any ban that comes into place.
The Trump administration has become increasingly hawkish towards attempts to censor American companies.
When he was one of the president's close advisers, Musk reportedly pushed Trump to raise curbs on social media regulation in trade talks with the UK.
The US has already handed out visa bans to Britons seen to encourage censorship, including Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, who is fighting deportation.
Downing Street has held talks with like-minded governments, including Canada and Australia, about a coordinated response. Indonesia became the first country to block access to Grok on Saturday.
A State Department spokesman noted that the United States will continue to take all necessary actions to protect the free speech rights of its citizens from foreign threats.
