‘Why are we allowing this?!' GB News guest fumes at 'disgusting' AI images as he backs Labour's X ban

His comments come as Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has said she would support Ofcom if the regulator decides to block UK access to Elon Musk’s social media platform X over breaches of online safety rules.

The watchdog is currently considering urgent action over X’s AI chatbot, Grok, which was used to digitally undress people without their consent when tagged in images on the site. X has since restricted this feature to paying subscribers only.

Ms Kendall said: "Sexually manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent.

She added: "I, and more importantly the public, would expect to see Ofcom update on next steps in days not weeks."

Backing the Technology Secretary's position on The People's Channel, Mr Oxley said: "Look at what is really going on with this tool, this is material that is absolutely illegal.

"A lot of it is, you know, explicit or semi-explicit images of children. This is not something we would tolerate on any other site. We would not excuse it or accept it.

"If you operated any other site, you’d be looking at going to prison for allowing that sort of material on your website.

"So I think it’s right that the Government is looking at extreme responses, because ultimately this is quite an extreme issue."

GB News host Dawn Neesom said: "John, there are other sites that have similar AI tools that will do this. They will put people in bikinis for you or change whatever outfit they are wearing. So it’s not just X that does this."

Mr Oxley said: "All of those are potentially regulated. I’m sure X isn’t being particularly singled out because of this. But I think there is a real issue here: not only is this site out there, it’s a very popular site with a lot of users.

"In many ways, that makes it worse that you can do these things on a site that is very easily publicly accessible and is producing some quite horrific content.

"We should also remember that, particularly if you’re using these sites at the moment, the way the laws work in this country, you are potentially exposing yourself to criminal charges simply by skimming past an image.

"And that’s something everyone should be worried about. From what I understand, X has introduced a tightening of the regulations, where basically you will only be able to use this tool if you are now a paying subscriber, they have your full identity and your credit card details.

"But to me, that just sounds like making it a premium service."

He added: "Again, anywhere else, it would not be a defence to say, 'Oh, actually, I was only making sexual images of children for people who were paying me.'

"It would be even worse. I think X as an organisation is not grappling with the seriousness of this.

"So it’s right for the Government to say, 'Look, we’re going to have to do something that makes you take this seriously.'

"This is illegal material. It’s quite disgusting material. We ban it and punish people for even having this on their phone or laptop, so why do we allow a company to be out there generating it for money?"

Responding to threats of a ban from the Government, Elon Musk wrote: “They just want to suppress free speech”.

Thousands of women have been targeted by users of an AI tool that initially transformed fully clothed photos into images depicting them in tiny bikinis, and later enabled far more extreme manipulations.

Images of teenage girls and children were altered to appear in swimwear, prompting experts to warn that some of the content could qualify as child sexual abuse material.

Some users escalated the abuse, requesting images showing bruises or added blood, and creating depictions of women being tied up, gagged, and shot.

On Friday, X partially restricted access to its AI chatbot Grok. Free users’ public accounts lost the ability to generate images, leaving the feature available only to paying subscribers.

The platform also appeared to have stopped producing images showing people in bikinis.