INSIGHTS

Corporate use of X: Grok AI undressing scandal is reputation tipping point

Anna Lawlor 12 January 2026

Corporate brand use of social media platform X is at an inflection point, and GT is now advising clients to reconsider its place in their MarComms strategy.

In recent weeks controversy has grown around a new feature of X’s AI chatbot Grok, which enables users to create and publish non-consensual ‘nudified’ or sexualised images.

This digital undressing was mostly being applied to images of women and children.

Today, GT notified its clients with an updated advisory about corporate brand participation on X, a public social media platform.

“In our view, X enabling users to create, publish and view AI-generated sexualised images of women and children using its Grok AI significantly changes the reputational risk profile of brands publishing to and being associated with X.

GT is of the opinion that were X a new social media platform today, it would likely not pass the reputational ‘sniff’ test for use within your communications and marketing mix.”

Anna Lawlor, Director, Head of Digital and Social Media at GT

What to do about your corporate X account

In our opinion, this scandal materially changes the risk dynamic of corporate brands using the X platform.

This is due to the risk of inadvertently accessing child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate deepfake images on the platform, which are illegal.

This is a fast-moving scandal involving technology that may change quickly, so guidance may be revised in due course.

Our recommendation is:

– Review your social media strategy and X’s place in it

Individual brand circumstances will be different. Typically, our recommendation is not to delete the profile at this stage, but to cease activity.

We recommend using the X profile biog to signpost alternative social media channels that your brand is more active on (such as LinkedIn).

– Seek HR advice around requiring some employees to interact with X given the risk of viewing potentially illegal material.

This could particularly affect roles responsible for monitoring and posting to X on behalf of the company.

– Review your Social Media Use Policy for all staff, in light of the related HR advice.

Brands using X to reach journalists

While X does have a large monthly user base and is heavily used for timely information such as news, this is tempered by changes under Elon Musk’s ownership.

These include a relaxation of moderation which gave rise to larger volumes of hate speech and disinformation. X has also failed to comply with a range of international online safety and data protection laws.

Many B2B brands have decreased their use of X over the years following various controversies and changes in the platform’s audience culture. X is most commonly now used as a media distribution tool to reach journalists.

Recently, GT had advised clients that while journalists were transitioning from X to BlueSky*, there remained enough journalists on X to warrant conservative use of X, such as for press release distribution.

Additionally, a quarter of journalists said they or their media brand planned to more active on X over the next year (according to Cision State of the Media Report, 2025**). Though a larger proportion (44%) said they would increase use of Instagram, 39% LinkedIn and 34% Facebook.

LinkedIn was the top social media channel used by journalists, followed by Instagram and Facebook in the same report.

Of course, these findings predate the recent Grok scandal which may yet prove to accelerate a transition from X to BlueSky (and other channels) that has already begun.

Pressure is intensifying around the suitability of government accounts on X, given this scandal.

The PR trade body PRCA has said “The platforms chosen by government bodies to communicate official information are not neutral choices: they signal standards, confer legitimacy and shape public expectations“.

The same can be said of corporate use of social media.

Context: Grok’s AI manipulated images and the law

In the last week or so, women have complained of X users sourcing clothed images of them and using Grok to create non-consensual ‘nudified’ or sexualised images which were then published on X.

What started as a “put her in a bikini” AI prompting fad rapidly evolved to increasingly explicit and derogatory content, mostly applied to images of women and children.

As a result of international pressure, X then restricted the non-consensual digital undressing of people to a premium commercial feature of Grok. (Although some users reported work-arounds to the paywall).

In the UK, it is illegal to view, possess, make, or distribute any image or video of a person under the age of 18 that is considered indecent. This includes “pseudo-photographs” (such as computer-generated images, AI-generated images, drawings, or cartoons that appear to be photographs).

Grok is an LLM feature that operates much like ChatGPT and sits as an option in the X platform’s main menu. Given that it is widely reported that Grok is being prompted to create thousands of ‘nudified’ images each day, the risk of X users even inadvertently viewing illegal material has increased considerably.

This raises serious questions about brand activity on X, both organic and paid.

The coming political storm

There has been widespread condemnation of the Grok undressing function and the harm inherent in targeting women and children.

However, X owner Elon Musk initially responded by making light of the function, posting his own ‘put him in a bikini’, which drew further ire from global politicians and policymakers.

Musk’s recent tweets said condemnation of Grok’s capabilities is about suppressing free speech.

Indonesia and Malaysia – with strict anti-pornography laws – have banned the Grok function on X in recent days.

Other governments, including the UK, are escalating the issue through various legal and regulatory routes, including considering bans of the Grok function and/or banning access to the X platform itself.

Breaking News: At the time of writing, the BBC has reported that the UK will introduce a new law this week making it illegal for companies to supply the tools designed to create non-consensual intimate images – as Grok has done.

Speaking to the House of Commons today (12 January 2026), Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said AI-generated pictures of women and children in states of undress, created without a person’s consent, were not “harmless images” but “weapons of abuse”.

Earlier today, the UF regulator Ofcom announced an investigation into whether X had breached the Online Safety Bill. If X is found to be in violation of UK media law, Ofcom could issue a substantial fine – up to 10% of revenue or £18m, depending on which number is bigger.

There is a political component to the scandal, given Elon Musk’s wealth and populist clout, and ambiguity over how US president Donald Trump may respond if X, a US tech giant, is commercially restricted or penalised by foreign countries.