Pressure on Dublin City Council to boycott X over Grok AI safety concerns
Pressure is mounting on Dublin City Council to cease using and financially supporting X following the proliferation of sexually explicit images through its AI chatbot Grok.Green Party councillors have come together to issue a joint motion stating the social media platform formerly known as Twitter has become “a vehicle for abuse and the promotion of far-right, racist, and divisive politics.” Councillor Feljin Jose called the recent Grok controversy “the final nail the coffin” and said it’s no longer appropriate for the council to treat X as a viable means of delivering information to the public.The motion, which has been referred to the Protocol Committee, states the Grok chatbot which has been "relentlessly pushed out by Elon Musk” serves to "violate individual rights while potentially breaching laws governing child safety and harassment.” Cllr Jose said it’s particularly inappropriate for accounts, like Dublin City Libraries, to be paying for a premium business account.Premium business accounts are signified with a gold tick on X and are currently billed at a rate of €973.75 per month for full access, or €11,685 annually. “The HSE also has a premium account and is giving Elon Musk thousands of euro per year,” Cllr Jose said.“Grok has been editing images under prompts from users and re-uploading said images back on the platform to reshare. Users have been requesting Grok to nudify images of women and minors,” the joint Green Party motion stated.“This feature allows for the creation of child sexual abuse material, and images of sexual harassment. No action has been taken by the platform to prevent this, or punish users involved in the creation of this material.“We call on all departments of Dublin City Council to immediately cease posting on the X platform. We resolve to write to all local councils to ask them to also cease posting on X. We resolve to write to all government departments to ask them, and the agencies they managed, to cease posting on X“Finally, we resolve to write to the Minister for Media and Minister of Justice, to ask them to listen to the calls by Rape Crisis Centre and other legal experts to ensure that the laws are robust in this instances since, as it stands, it is not. Coco’s Law needs to be expanded to include the introduction of a penalty for the creation of deepfakes.”Cllr Jose said the Green Party has recently taken stand against Elon Musk and X and chosen to no longer use the platform. He said it’s not appropriate for the council and other state agencies to use X as a major means of communicating to the public and said they should rely on their own website and other, less controversial, social media platforms.“If you look at the DCC Traffic one, X is their primary method of giving updates. You can’t see them without logging in, so the council is asking people to become a member of this despicable website to get updates from local government,” he said.Cllr Jose explained that when it comes to social media “we are the product” and it’s essential for state bodies like Dublin City Council move away from the platform and “no longer give legitimacy to an organisation that has done so many despicable things.”With dozens of accounts associated with Dublin City Council, Cllr Jose believes the paid for blue tick that can be seen on council-affiliated pages like Brigit: Dublin City Celebrating Women really highlights the disconnect between the good work organisers are trying to achieve and the place in which that work is promoted. “It’s gotten to the stage where the line in the sand has been crossed,” Cllr Jose said.While this motion was originally proposed for tonight’s monthly council meeting, it has since been referred to the Protocols Committee who are due to meet at the end of this month. When contacted for comment about the Grok’s creation of sexual explicitly images, a spokesperson from X stated:“We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”Dublin City Council has been contacted regarding its continued use of X and paid premium accounts.This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting SchemeJoin our Dublin Live breaking news service on WhatsApp. Click this link to receive your daily dose of Dublin Live content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice .For all the latest news from Dublin and surrounding areas visit our homepage .
