We’ve Hit Grok Bottom

In this week's round-up of the latest news in online speech, content moderation and internet regulation, Mike and Ben cover:
• UK, Canadian watchdogs press on with probes into Elon Musk's Grok chatbot (reuters.com/business/media-telecom/uk-regulato…) (Reuters)
• Musk’s xAI limits Grok’s ability to create sexualized images of real people on X after backlash (cnbc.com/2026/01/14/musk-xai-blocks-grok-chatb…) (CNBC)
• X claims it has stopped Grok from undressing people, but of course it hasn’t (theverge.com/news/862372/x-grok-ai-policy-upda…) (The Verge)
• State Department Threatens UK Over Grok Investigation, Because Only The US Is Allowed To Ban Foreign Apps (techdirt.com/2026/01/15/state-department-threa…) (Techdirt)
• Keir Starmer tells MPs he is open to social media ban for young people (theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/13/keir-star…) (The Guardian)
• Statement from the Molly Rose Foundation (linkedin.com/posts/andy-burrows-60256731_socia…) (LinkedIn)
• Wes Streeting asks US expert Jonathan Haidt to address officials on social media ban for under-16s (theguardian.com/media/2026/jan/14/wes-streetin…) (The Guardian)
• Some social media use can benefit teen mental health (aapnews.aap.com.au/glance/news/some-social-med…) (AAP)
• Arlington-focused Facebook group with 25,000 members is removed, angering moderators (arlnow.com/2026/01/14/arlington-focused-facebo…) (ARLnow)
• Bandcamp becomes the first major music platform to ban AI content (theverge.com/news/861794/bandcamp-ban-ai-music) (The Verge)
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Ctrl-Alt-Speech is the podcast where we make sense of the major debates shaping online speech, platform power, content moderation and the future of the internet. It’s co-hosted by Mike Masnick (Techdirt (techdirt.com)) and Ben Whitelaw (Everything in Moderation (everythinginmoderation.co)).