UK, Australia and Canada in talks to launch coordinated X ban

The left-wing governments of the UK, Australia and Canada have held talks about carrying out a coordinated ban of Elon Musk’s free speech platform X.

The discussions have been spearheaded by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer who has called for “all options to be on the table” to stop X’s AI chatbot Grok being allowed to “digitally undress” women, but critics fear the move is aimed at shutting down right-wing speech, which has flourished since Musk bought the site.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who recently banned under-16s from accessing X but not far-left platform BlueSky, called Grok “abhorrent” and said it was “an example of social media not showing social responsibility”. “Australians and indeed, global citizens deserve better,” he said.

UK government officials believe a coordinated ban will send a strong message to Musk and be more likely to withstand responses from the US government, which had vowed to sanction leaders who ban X, The Telegraph reported.

UK Technology Secretary said in a column for the publication that she will support the country’s media watchdog Ofcom if it recommends a full ban on X, and suggested that any MPs opposing such a move would be advocating for so-called “sexually manipulated images”.

Musk responded to news of the talks on X by labelling the UK government fascist, retweeting statistics showing Britain arrests more people for social media posts than any other country.

He also reposted a post saying: “Australian PM does not want to ban only fans where you can watch one woman screw a thousand guys to make money. He doesn’t want to ban gambling ads that cause suicide and destruction Australia wide. But he wants to ban X because Grok pictured him in a bikini.”

Australian senator Ralph Babet first revealed rumours about talks to permanently ban X on Friday, and said he hoped any attempt to do so would result in a “fierce and swift” public backlash.

“Banning communication and the free flow of ideas contrary to the approved government narrative is and has always been the goal of all tyrants throughout history,” Mr Babet wrote in response to the Mr Starmer’s criticisms of X.

US Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna responded to the prospect of a UK ban on X on Friday by saying she was drafting legislation to “sanction not only Starmer, but Britain as a whole”, calling the potential move a “political war against Elon Musk and free speech”.

Header image: Starmer and Albanese in Canada last year (PMO).

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