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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Kate Devlin

More than 100 campaigners and organisations back MP suing Elon Musk’s xAI over deepfake images of her

Dozens of campaigners and organisations have backed a Labour MP’s “incredibly brave” legal action against Elon Musk’s xAI, whose Grok chatbot she alleges created fabricated images of her in a bikini.

Jess Asato, the MP for Lowestoft in Suffolk, has said she felt violated after artificial intelligence was used to produce a fake picture of her.

Earlier this week, Sir Keir Starmer said she was "absolutely right" to take legal action over "disgusting" images created of her by the chatbot.

Now more than 100 campaigners and organisations have declared in a statement that they “stand with Jess Asato”.

The MP, who says she filed a legal case at the High Court on Wednesday, is seeking damages as well as to set a precedent that would make companies liable for the design of AI systems.

In the statement, the campaigners say they hope her “incredibly brave legal action” is the first step towards accountability for those responsible and that it will “open a path to redress for the many, many other victims who have suffered”.

She told The Independent that her legal action “feels like a shout for women’s freedom on the internet”.

“A way of saying enough. We have put up with this for too long,” she added.

She said the support she had received had been “astonishing” and “very heartwarming”.

“I feel like this is almost a watershed moment. We have known that for many years women have faced this growing tsunami of online misogyny... that Grok managed to create on a mass level.

“And what we are seeing is women standing up and saying ‘we have had enough, we are not going to let this stand’.”

In the statement, her backers say: “Researchers found that in an 11-day period — from the start of 29 December 2025 to the end of 8 January 2026 — Grok generated an estimated three million nonconsensual sexualised images of women and children, which were widely disseminated on X, causing untold harm.

“To date, there has been no justice for any of the victims. We believe that xAI must be held legally accountable to ensure that no AI tool or social media platform can ever repeat such awful harm against women, children, or anyone.”

The statement has been signed by the chief executives of Women’s Aid, Refuge, Rape Crisis England & Wales, the Fawcett Society, the Mental Health Foundation and the Molly Rose Foundation, works to prevent suicide by advocating for safer online environments, among many others.

Ministers hit out at Mr Musk in February after his Grok AI chatbot was used to create non-consensual sexualised images.

Sir Keir issued an ultimatum to the X owner threatening "fast action" if the platform cannot control Grok, while the regulator Ofcom launched a formal investigation into X's compliance with UK laws.

At the time the PM told MPs: “The actions of Grok and X are absolutely disgusting and shameful. Protecting their abusive users, rather than the women and children who are being abused shows a total distortion of priorities.

“So let me be crystal clear, we won’t stand for it, because no matter how unstable or complex the world becomes, this government will be guided by its values. We’ll stand up for the vulnerable against the powerful.”

The statement has been signed by:

Adele Zeynep Walton

Hannah Stevens, CEO, Elect Her

Professor Olga Jurasz, Director, Centre for Protecting Women Online

Leanda Barrington-Leach, Executive Director, 5Rights Foundation

Helen Pankhurst CBE, Convener, Centenary Action

Chris Ashworth OBE, Founder, Click Zero

Penny East, Chief Executive, Fawcett Society

Tara Steele, Executive Director, Safe AI for Children Alliance

Jennifer Nadel, CEO, Compassion in Politics

Janaya Walker, Interim Director, End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW)

Paul Jones, CEO, FlippGen

Danny Stone MBE, Chief Executive, Antisemitism Policy Trust

David Parfett, Chair of Trustees, Thomas William Parfett Foundation

Professor Clare McGlynn, Durham University

Maeve Walsh, Director, Online Safety Act Network

Elena Michael, Director, #NotYourPorn

Mark Rowland, CEO, Mental Health Foundation

Andy Burrows, CEO, Molly Rose Foundation

Sanjay Bhandari, Chair, Kick It Out

Lyanne Nicholl, CEO, 50:50 Parliament

Professor Lisa Sugiura, Lead, Digital Gender Harms Research Unit, University of Portsmouth

Ciara Bergman, CEO, Rape Crisis England & Wales

Hera Hussain, CEO, Chayn

Naomi Miles, CEO, Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE)

Professor Bryony Hoskins, Chair of Comparative Social science, University of Roehampton

Emma Lingley-Clark, Interim CEO, Suzy Lamplugh Trust

Laura Kaun, Head of Public Affairs, Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH)

Sara Kirkpatrick, CEO, Welsh Women’s Aid

Andrea Simon, London’s Victims’ Commissioner

Rose Caldwell, CEO, Plan International UK

Angie Airlie, CEO, Stay Safe East

Red Godfrey-Sagoo. CEO Rape Crisis South London

Estelle du Boulay, Director, Rights of Women

Ghadah Alnasseri, Executive Director, Imkaan

Professor Ann Kristin Glenster, LOGOS, University of Cambridge

Diana Nammi, IKWRO - Women’s Rights Organisation

Peter Bannister, LOGOS, University of Cambridge

Jo Todd, CEO, Respect

Gemma Sherrington, CEO, Refuge

Bernie Ryan, CEO, Institute for Addressing Strangulation (IFAS)

Shonagh Dillon, CEO Aurora New Dawn

Gemma Magee-Herd, CEO, SAHWR

Maureen Connolly, CEO, Birmingham and Solihull Women’s Aid

Deborah Denis, Chief Executive, Lucy Faithfull Foundation

Michelle Blunsom MBE, CEO, East Surrey Domestic Abuse Services (ESDAS)

Jo Choi, Interim CEO, Standing Together Against Domestic Service

Frank Mullane MBE, CEO, Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA)

Selma Taha, Executive Director, Southall Black Sisters (SBS)

Harriet Wistrich, CEO, Centre for Women’s Justice

Beverley Jones, CEO, Next Chapter

Gisela Valle, Director, Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS)

Amtal Rana, CEO, Kiran Support Services

. Jill Caldwell, CEO, Paws for Kids/Endeavour

Sam Clifford, CEO, Jewish Women’s AId

Sarah Andrew, Legal and Campaign Director, Avaaz Foundation

Jill Cooper, CEO, Stroud Beresford Limited (Stroud Women’s Refuge)

Heather Smiles, Manager, Sutton Women’s Centre

Debi Coppel Refuge manager The First step (Knowsley)

Nicki Watts, Director, AI Youth

Medina Johnson, Chief Executive, IRISi

Susie McDonald, CEO, Tender Education & Arts

Sharon Brown, CEO, Northumberland Domestic Abuse Services (NDAS)

Elisabeth Sheppard, CEO, Gilgal Birmingham

Elizabeth Jiménez-Yáñez, Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Hibiscus

Jo Gough, RISE (Sussex VAWG service)

Claire Lambon, CEO, Stop Domestic Abuse

Lynne Elliot, CEO, White Ribbon UK

Gaby Price, CEO, Women’s Aid Luton

Charlotte Almond, Staffordshire Women’s Aid

Katie Freeman-Tayler, Policy and Research Director, Internet Matters

Nina Humphries, Director, UK Feminista

Shigufta Khan, CEO The Wish Centre

Stephen Kinsella, Founder Clean Up the Internet

Natalie Collins, Own My Life

Jeffrey DeMarco, Senior Advisor Online Harms, Save the Children UK

Sarah Hill, CEO, IDAS

Sophie McGoff, CEO, Women’s Aid Leicestershire Ltd

Jacqui Kilburn, Head of Training, AAFDA

Rory Innes, Founder & CEO, The Cyber Helpline

Baroness Gabby Bertin, Lead Reviewer of the Independent Pornography Review

Kyla Kirkpatrick, Director, The Drive Partnership

Tracey Bleakley, Interim CEO, SafeLives

Sam Smethers, CEO, Surviving Economic Abuse

Constanze Sen, CEO, Women’s Aid Bromley and Croydon

Lawrence Jordan, CEO, Marie Collins Foundation

Angie Herrera, Director, Latin American Women’s Aid

Farah Nazeer, CEO, Women’s Aid Federation England

Soma Sara, CEO, Everyone’s Invited

Ruth Galwey, National President, BPW UK

Ross Hendry, CEO, CARE

Alice Piller-Roner, CEO, Woman’s Trust

Natasha Rattu, CEO, Karma Nirvana

Matteo Bergamini, MBE, Founder and CEO, Shout Out UK

Professor Gina Neff, Minderoo Centre for Technology & Democracy, University of Cambridge

Daniel Guinness, Managing Director, Beyond Equality

Liz Mack, CEO, Advance

Sarah O’Leary, CEO, Next Link.

Kyle Taylor, Executive Director, Fair Vote UK

David Wright, CEO, SWGfL

Professor Yvonne McDermott Rees, Queen’s University Belfast

Ben Scott, CEO, Reset Tech

Vicki Shotbolt, CEO, Parent Zone

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