Parliament departs from X over Grok’s deepfake and abuse imagery
Friday, 20 February 2026
New Zealand’s Parliament has stopped actively posting on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, as the Clerk of the House does not believe the platform has adequately responded to concerns about its AI chatbot Grok.
The departure comes after a column from National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance called for public organisations and politicians to depart from the platform.
“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,” Vance wrote.
“Meanwhile, in New Zealand ….Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters, David Seymour and Chris Hipkins continue to compose official tweets on that very same platform.”
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In France, a cyber-crime unit has raided Musk’s offices, part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child sex abuse material.
“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,” she wrote.
This column earned an angry rebuke from NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Vance said on Friday it wasn’t about culture wars or silencing debate.
“It’s about child protection and the duty of institutions to model standards that put safety first. Public bodies should communicate in spaces that uphold the law, protect the vulnerable, and can be trusted by the communities they serve.
“If this decision contributes to a wider push for stronger accountability and safer digital spaces, that can only be a good thing.”
X has become an extremely controversial platform since its takeover and renaming by right-wing billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk’s many changes to the site include the removal of the traditional verification system, the promotion of posts by users who pay to use the service, and the introduction of a chatbot named Grok.
Grok faced a huge backlash in January when it was used to create “deepfake” non-consensual sexualised imagery of real people. Researchers have suggested some images appeared to include children and, while X has responded, many regulators are continuing active investigations, with French police raiding the organisation’s Paris office in recent days.
It was this controversy which prompted Parliament’s official account to go dark, according to the Clerk of the House David Wilson.
Wilson told The Post he did not think it was appropriate for Parliament to be seen to give any “tacit approval” of the platform.
“The reason I’ve decided to stop using X is because of the way that its AI bot was used to generate child sexual abuse material and deepfake nudes of adults, and the fact that it has not responded to that very effectively.
“It’s not my job to police those things. But it’s not therefore a platform I want my organisation associated with.”
Wilson stressed that MPs had no part in the decision as the account was owned and operated by his Office of the Clerk.
He said the account had largely posted when bills gained royal assent and Parliament would continue to do this on Facebook.
The NZParliament account has existed since 2008 and has more than 35,000 followers.
Several other public sector organisations have also decided to stop posting on the platform.
Free Speech Union chief executive Jillaine Heather was outraged by the decision and wrote to Speaker Gerry Brownlee over the matter.
'When Parliament leaves X, the platform doesn't disappear. What disappears is the authoritative information. Nearly a million New Zealanders are still there, except now they're getting their Parliamentary news from rumour instead of the source. That's not protecting citizens. That's abandoning them.
'If the concern is illegal content on X, the answer is law enforcement, not institutional withdrawal. Illegal content exists on every major platform. If that were the standard, Parliament would have to leave Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, too.“
Heather noted that the Public Service Act requires the service to foster 'active citizenship' and 'open government“.
Wilson noted that his office was not covered by the Act and said the difference between other platforms and X was that other platforms seemed to take matters such as this more seriously.
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