Opinion
08 Jan 26

Women's Aid leave X following Grok AI deepfakes controversy

Women's Aid - Taken from X

Women's Aid CEO called on governments and regulators to "act swiftly and decisively to create effective accountability."

Irish domestic abuse charity Women's Aid have decided to leave X on January 8, after X's AI Chatbot, Grok, was found producing and sharing non-consensual sexual images of women and children.

"We firmly believe that social media platforms have a crucial role to play in a healthy society, providing crucial townhall spaces for thoughtful, respectful, constructive and positive dialogue," reads the statement from Women's Aid's CEO, Sarah Benson.

"As an organisation working to end violence against women and children, we balance the costs with any benefits to our continued engagement in this space and find we can no longer tolerate this situation."

Furthermore, Women's Aid are calling on governments and regulators to "act swiftly and decisively to create effective accountability."

Governments across Europe have been calling for accountability from Elon Musk. Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Niamh Smyth told Newstalk she had written to X regarding the deepfakes.

“I've heard a lot of debate over the last 24 hours about strengthening the laws and ensuring that they're robust, but from my understanding of the Irish law and EU law... we have those laws in place," she said.

Minister for Media Patrick O’Donovan shifted responsibility from X, saying that “Ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s a choice of a person to make these images,” adding that the rate at which technology develops makes it hard for the law to respond accordingly.

View the full statement from Sarah Benson below:

Women’s Aid, a national organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse including coercive control in Ireland, will no longer maintain a presence on the platform X from 8^th January 2026.

The organisation has watched the increased levels of unchecked hate, misogyny, racism and anti-LGBTI+ content on the platform with growing unease and concern. The current scandal which has seen the creation and sharing of AI deepfakes, non-consensual intimate imagery, and production of child sexual abuse material by X’s own AI Grok, in breach of the platforms own guidelines and regulations is a tipping point.

This online violence against women and children – especially girls – has often devastating real life impacts and we no longer view it as appropriate to use such a platform to share our work.

This has not been an easy decision. Women’s Aid was an early user of social media, including Twitter/X since 2009. We have engaged with and informed our supporters of the prevalence and impact of domestic abuse, promote our frontline support services to those affected and push for positive social change.

We firmly believe that social media platforms have a crucial role to play in a healthy society, providing crucial townhall spaces for thoughtful, respectful, constructive and positive dialogue. By leaving we acknowledge that we are ceding the stage to the malign actors, and bots who will continue to overrun the space creating and spreading disinformation and other harmful content with effective impunity. However, as an organisation working to end violence against women and children, we balance the costs with any benefits to our continued engagement in this space and find we can no longer tolerate this situation.

While we have reduced leverage on this platform, we call on Governments and Regulators in both Ireland and at EU level to act swiftly and decisively to create effective accountability, legislation and regulation to ensure companies must have guardrails that protect truth, and prevent harm so that in the future any user can use X, and any online platform safely.