Every official tweet is a nod to child abuse
Sunday, 8 February 2026
Andrea Vance is National Affairs Editor for The Post and Sunday Star-Times.
OPINION: X, the social media site, is the digital equivalent of a crime scene.
Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is producing sexualised images of women without their consent and, in a grotesque escalation, pornographic depictions of children.
The European Commission has called it disgusting and was clear: “Ban online what is forbidden in real life.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it was shameful and boycotted the network (for a week). In a poll, 58% of Britons said X should be banned if it didn’t crack down on AI-generated, non-consensual images.
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It raises “deeply troubling questions”, said the Information Commissioner’s Office last week, formally opening an investigation into whether data laws were broken.
Paris prosecutors also think it might be criminal. In the last few days, the cyber-crime unit raided Musk’s French offices, part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child sex abuse material.
Let me just repeat that. Child sex abuse material.
The social media giant is accused of enabling users to create sexualised images, including of minors and victims of the Crans-Montana ski-lodge fire. (Not to mention the Grok chatbot spreading Holocaust denial material and praising Adolf Hitler.)
Meanwhile, in New Zealand ….Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters, David Seymour and Chris Hipkins continue to compose official tweets on that very same platform.
Take a moment to mull that over. A social network under criminal investigation for child sexual abuse material, and yet our elected officials are using it to announce policy, issue press releases, and score clout.
Their continued use is a form of tacit endorsement. Every official post on X is a signal that it is credible and legitimate.
A quick scroll through X exposes a current of abuse, exploitation, and illegal content more toxic than the flow from Moa Point into Cook Strait.
If all of this – X amplifying anti-Semitism, spreading misinformation, and fomenting violence across borders; Musk cajoling, litigating, flattering, and fleecing governments from Turkey to India, China, and Argentina – didn’t give our political leaders pause, then surely the rest would?
That his tenure at Doge included major cuts to USAID, while allegedly using AI to surveil government workers for hostility to President Trump? That he used his vast wealth to influence US elections, raised an outstretched arm reminiscent of a Nazi salute, and allegedly supported Germany’s far-right AfD, labelled extremist by its intelligence agency?
That he tweeted conspiracy theories about the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, and maintained extensive, friendly communications with Jeffrey Epstein even after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, despite publicly denying any ties?
If none of that mattered to our political leaders, surely — surely — Grok stripping real women without their consent and producing sexualised depictions of children would make them want to choose another product?
In New Zealand, X holds just over 6% of the social media market, so it’s now a platform with barely a sliver of reach.
And it’s no longer Twitter. Since the ketamine-addled megalomaniac took over the platform in 2022 it has become a vast, dystopian disinformation network.
Musk revelled in slashing moderation and reinstating banned accounts, particularly those barred for hateful content.
Political content on X is not diverse; it is overwhelmingly right-wing. (To be fair, as Twitter, it appeared to skew left.) Journalists in the UK found more than half of political content comes from accounts using hateful or extreme language, and that was boosted by its algorithm.
There is a weak argument (usually put forward by white men, those least likely to suffer abuse online) that staying on X somehow moderates the awful. You can’t dilute a cesspool.
The effect of authority figures remaining active on X is to legitimise it. Advertisers continue to fund it, and the algorithm pumps the toxic wash back to the surface.
Many journalists (your writer included) and media outlets have long since abandoned the platform because of abuse, threats and disinformation.
Sinead Boucher, the owner and publisher of Stuff Group which publishes this masthead, says the company does not use X and discourages reporters from doing so, even if it can’t control personal accounts.
Other politicians have followed. Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson has not used X since June 2024, while Chlöe Swarbrick doesn’t appear to have an account. Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi appears to have walked away in 2023, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has no footprint.
Contrast that with Luxon and Peters. Luxon made his first public statement on the tragic Mount Maunganui landslide on X, then directed journalists to the platform rather than issuing a media statement through the usual channels of email or direct communication.
Peters has done something similar, repeatedly slipping out statements on New Zealand’s official position as foreign minister for reporters to stumble across after the fact.
That’s a deliberate choice to make the platform the first point of contact for official communication. Both men also find dealing with journalists irksome and are probably making a point that they prefer a channel where their message is amplified without challenge.
Many of these same politicians will happily boycott other platforms when inconvenient. David Seymour refuses to appear on Morning Report. Luxon is noticeably less available to the media than his predecessors. Peters picks and chooses which journalists he’ll give an audience too.
They also profess care over these issues — especially Luxon, who wants to restrict social media for under-16s and confiscated schoolkids’ cellphones, and Peters, who hounded Benjamin Doyle out of Parliament over half-baked child safety concerns over an Instagram post.
Yet when it comes to Big Tech, that enthusiasm for confrontation vanishes.
Ministers did pledge to stand up to global tech giants, which generate billions in local revenue but pay relatively small amounts of tax, while pillaging the local media and creative sector.
These companies contribute to deteriorating mental health among young people, making a National member’s bill on restrictions on under-16 use popular - but as yet Govt promises remain unfulfilled.
Meanwhile, on the daily, they’ll patronise a network that traffics in exploitation, actively undermines democracy and is now under criminal investigation.
In doing so, they kowtow to the billionaire overclass that is poisoning American politics. From its cosy, sycophantic ties to Donald Trump, to the documented dealings with dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, these moguls are propping up authoritarian agendas and exploit technology to manipulate public opinion.
If Musk’s platform can’t keep the law from being broken, maybe it shouldn’t be a podium for those entrusted to uphold it.
What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz. Please include your full name and address.