A harrowing investigation has uncovered a network of Telegram communities dedicated to the exploitation and abuse of women. These groups leverage advanced technology like GrokAI to generate non-consensual explicit imagery, while others distribute horrific guides on committing sexual violence.
The scale of these digital spaces highlights a terrifying frontier of online harm that continues to operate with little oversight. Investigations by the Metro reveal a disturbing space where participants command Grok to remove the clothes of family and friends.
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Digital Predators Targeted Friends and Family
One participant boasted to the chat that this was his most successful AI-produced clip yet—depicting a friend of his wife lifting her dress. The short sequence was merely a fragment of an extended recording he built by submitting a photograph of the victim at a social event to the bot created by Elon Musk.
Peers pressured him for the exact prompt he used so they could also generate lewd shots of their spouses, family members, or people they did not know. Such a discussion was only a glimpse into the messages the Metro found in a channel where men post portraits of ladies for digital tampering.
This community, which the Metro has chosen to keep anonymous, was thriving just before X saw a surge of AI-made visuals featuring the exploitation of females and kids. A lot of those involved admitted to crafting the false clips with Grok Imagine, a service that turns words or photos into brief videos with sound.
Based on user reports, the bot modified pictures to delete shirts or force figures into lewd postures after a bit of trial and error. Participants frequently shared grabs from personal accounts and begged the chat to fashion indecent replicas, leading to some providing a series of results.
A Growing Culture of Abuse
Within the chat, a member bragged that they were ‘addicted’ to producing forged sexual media of their spouse, while someone else remarked they had been doing so for quite some time. Another man encouraged the chat to turn his partner into a ‘s**t’ and uploaded several snaps of her prior to showing the edits he had already crafted.
Not every explicit photo or clip was produced by Grok; people frequently turned to or mentioned alternative software. A few subscribers even queried whether the collective wanted to ‘exchange’ their text commands or finished files.
These types of upsetting communities have been exposed on the app before. A massive inquiry, led by Germany‘s largest public broadcasting network ARD, last year brought to light channels containing upwards of 70,000 global users who traded ‘tutorials’ and materials on drugging, attacking, or raping women. Such discoveries sparked massive public anger and demands for tighter control over digital spaces.
Violent Media Often Goes Viral Instantly
There has been a drive by Musk to ensure his software is more permissive than other platforms. Not long ago, his corporation became the first artificial intelligence business to introduce pornographic avatars to its service.
It is worth noting that Grok features a ‘spicy mode’ intended for creators to produce ‘less filtered, provocative’ media. While the service permits made-up, consensual erotic material, it maintains various protections to stop the creation of entirely naked visuals featuring actual individuals or minors.
Guidelines on X prohibit the publication of ‘intimate photos or videos of someone that were produced or distributed without their consent’ and similarly ban any erotic visuals involving youngsters.
Global Crackdown and Legal Consequences
Several governments have rules on deepfakes, which are computer-generated characters that can use voice cloning or synchronised movements to appear genuine. Meanwhile, some jurisdictions completely outlaw unpermitted naked pictures, commonly known as revenge porn.
Ofcom has launched an inquiry into X following fears that Grok helps produce lewd visuals of females and minors. The platform risks a massive financial penalty or a total block in Britain by the watchdog, matching the actions recently taken by two other nations.
Meanwhile, the administration announced on 13 January that producing unpermitted AI-made visuals will become a criminal offence. Jake Moore, an international security specialist at the firm ESET, informed Metro that major corporations such as X must be made to take greater responsibility.
‘When accessible technology is freely available, abusive material can spread like wildfire, so running it underground only slows the problem down rather than removing it at the core,’ he said.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
