US Congress threatens eSafety commissioner with contempt charges New codes coming into force on March 9 will compel AI services, among others, to limit children’s access to sexually explicit content, as well as violent material and themes related to self-harm and suicide. These regulations follow the eSafety commission’s enforcement action against a UK-based company that offered two widely used nudify services that allowed its users to manipulate photos of real people. These services had attracted about 100,000 visitors a month in Australia, and eSafety said they had been used to generate explicit deepfake images of students in Australian schools. The sites were withdrawn from Australia in November after an official warning from eSafety. One month since eSafety instituted the Albanese government’s world-first under-16 social media ban, Inman Grant is still under threat of contempt charges by US Congress unless she testifies about online safety laws by Tuesday, January 13. Advertisement Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, has claimed that Australia’s Online Safety Act threatens the free speech of American citizens, and has twice demanded Inman Grant to account for her previous attempts to force social media companies to remove graphic content from their platforms. Congress has the power to compel US citizens living abroad to testify, and to be found in contempt of Congress for failing to comply. Contempt of Congress can be punished with fines or jail time. Inman Grant butted heads with Musk last year when eSafety demanded that X remove graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney, arguing that global removal was necessary because Australians could use VPNs to access the content. The case was abandoned. The European Commission has ordered X to retain all documents relating to Grok for longer while the bloc ensures compliance with its rules after condemning it for producing sexualised images, a spokesperson said on Thursday. The Italian regulator said it was working with Ireland’s Data Protection Commission – the lead EU privacy authority for X, which has a base in Ireland – and reserved the right to take further action. Advertisement Sweden on Thursday joined the chorus of criticism, saying the AI-generated images were unacceptable after the country’s deputy prime minister was targeted by a Grok user’s prompt this week. with Bloomberg, Reuters Be the first to know when major news happens. Sign up for breaking news alerts on email or turn on notifications in the app. Save