The Women’s Super League (WSL) and multiple women’s football clubs in England are actively monitoring developments involving X’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool, Grok, following growing concerns over its misuse in generating sexualised images of female athletes. The issue has prompted both institutional responses and increased digital safeguarding measures across the sport.

Last month, WSL Football, the governing body overseeing the top two tiers of women’s football in England, confirmed it is tracking the situation, with some clubs revising guidance for players and staff on the safe use of social media platforms, including X, formerly known as Twitter.

The concerns intensified in January when regulator OFCOM launched an investigation into X after reports emerged that Grok had been used to create sexually explicit, manipulated images of real people, including women and children. In response, X restricted Grok’s image-editing capabilities, specifically preventing the generation of images depicting real individuals in revealing clothing.

Despite this action, the problem extends beyond Grok’s on-platform functionality. Jonathan Sebire, co-founder of Signify—an organisation that partners with WSL and Premier League clubs to monitor online abuse—warned: “Similar off-platform image manipulation tools are available and we have seen them also being used to produce concerning images and videos. This will be a live issue for some time to come.”

OFCOM clarified that its current powers under the Online Safety Act do not extend to standalone or off-platform AI tools like some versions of Grok. A spokesperson stated: “We can only take action on online harms covered by the Online Safety Act, using the powers we have been granted. Any changes to these powers would be a matter for government and parliament.” The UK government has indicated it plans to review how AI services should be regulated, with OFCOM supporting such efforts.

Signify has since implemented a new detection system capable of identifying AI-manipulated images and reporting them directly to X for takedown. “Encouragingly, we have seen the platform take strong action when dealing with content,” Sebire added.

Internationally, the European Commission launched its own probe into X under the Digital Services Act, focusing on the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, including deepfake pornography generated via Grok.

The issue spilled into real-world club operations when Arsenal removed a promotional video from X and disabled comments on an Instagram post featuring new signing Smilla Holmberg due to an influx of inappropriate, misogynistic, and sexualised comments. Some users explicitly prompted Grok to generate explicit images of the player. Tottenham Hotspur took similar action after announcing the signing of 19-year-old Matilda Nilden, disabling comments on their X post.

Fern Whelan, Women’s Football Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Executive at the Professional Footballers’ Association, described the situation as “really worrying.” In an interview with The Athletic, she stated: “It’s difficult to manage unless it is stopped at source.”

Sport England, a key public body supporting sports participation, has ceased using X altogether, citing its commitment to ensuring sport remains “safe and inclusive for everyone.” The WSL has also reduced its reliance on X, shifting focus to Instagram and TikTok for content distribution.

Nikki Doucet, CEO of WSL Football, reiterated the league’s stance last month: “Online abuse is one of our highest priorities at the moment. We have seen the speed in which and the change in the type of abuse that is happening. Some content is not illegal but there is a lot that is awful but lawful.”

As AI capabilities continue to evolve, football institutions, regulators, and digital safety experts are calling for urgent, coordinated action to protect athletes from emerging forms of online harassment.