MEDIA MINISTER PATRICK O’Donovan has said he has deleted his X account over the digital undressing scandal that has engulfed the platform owned by Elon Musk. 

The change in approach comes after the Minister faced heavy criticism yesterday for saying that he did not believe X was responsible for the child sexual abuse materials that have been generated using the platform’s technology over the last week. 

He made the announcement on The Limerick Today show on Live95 this morning.

“I’ve deactivated it. And look, as Minister for Communications and Minister for Media I just felt that if you’re on a platform where this is allowed, regardless of whether you’re paying for it or not, I just don’t feel comfortable with it.

“I don’t feel comfortable with the fact that there’s people that are going to use my image, or your image, or somebody else’s image and artificially generate something around it and maybe make it into something that it shouldn’t [be] and publish it then,” O’Donovan said.

It comes after he argued yesterday that artificial intelligence technology is moving too fast for laws to keep pace.

Other senior government ministers have also faced questions this week about their continued use of the platform as other politicians and groups like Women’s Aid and the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre have walked away from it. 

Asked earlier this week by The Journal at what point he would personally stop using the platform X, Tánaiste Simon Harris said it was “an interesting question” and one he would have to “more broadly reflect on”. 

Tánaiste and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris Rollingnews.ie Rollingnews.ie

Similarly, when asked about the appropriateness of government ministers continuing to have a presence on the platform, Enterprise Minister Peter Burke said that the Government would have to make a decision “collectively” in relation to any platform it is on.

The scandal with X’s AI bot Grok began after the social media platform rolled out an “edit image” button, a tool which was designed to give users the power to modify online images by inputting specific prompts.

The European Commission has said it is “very seriously looking” into complaints about the tool in what is the latest controversy surrounding the use of AI to create non-consensual sexual images of women and children.

The European Union is already seeking to criminalise AI-generated child sexual abuse material and remove a statute of limitation on child abuse crimes across Europe.

The Irish government claims that existing domestic laws are adequate to deal with the issue, but opposition parties have argued that there are loopholes that need to be closed.

The Attorney General is currently exploring whether additional laws are needed.

Since the scandal emerged, Grok has soared to the top of the app download charts in Ireland.