Are Canada and the U.K. really going to ban X?
Ezra Levant discusses a concerning story from The Telegraph about the U.K. government holding discussions with Canadian officials on banning Elon Musk's X platform over explicit deepfake concerns.
On last night's episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra reacted to a report from The Telegraph detailing how U.K. officials have engaged in discussions with Canadian counterparts about potentially banning the social media platform X.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other U.K. officials are reportedly concerned about AI-generated images being produced by Elon Musk's Grok chatbot on X. The concern revolves primarily around depictions of individuals in bikinis or similar attire, created by editing existing photos via AI prompts.
Importantly, these are not instances of explicit pornography or obscenity; rather, they're manipulated images that have sparked debate over consent and harm.
Ezra notes that this issue isn't explicitly connected to Grok. Similar capabilities exist across various AI systems, a challenge that has persisted since the advent of photo-editing software like Photoshop.
Yet the scrutiny appears directed primarily at X, and Musk — a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump and a supporter of minimal content moderation.
After facing backlash following The Telegraph's report, Liberal Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon stated publicly that Canada is not contemplating an outright ban on X. However, Ezra questions whether it's a stretch to think the Liberals might take action against Musk and X.
Contrary to media reports, Canada is not considering a ban of X. https://t.co/LtQanuT4xm
— Evan Solomon (@EvanLSolomon) January 11, 2026
"He was pretty conclusive about it, but there's a bit of a lawyerly trickery there," said Ezra. "Because banning X, banning Twitter, although that was the phraseology in the Telegraph story, I don't think it would happen with an outright ban. I don't think that would be legally permissible in either Canada or the United Kingdom," he continued.
"I think what would be much more likely to happen is extreme censorship, regulations, limits, rules being put on X, I think that's much more likely to happen," Ezra added.
The Rebel News publisher asserts that governments like the Liberals in Canada and Labour in the U.K. may not call it a 'ban' outright, but they'll likely achieve the same chilling effect through heavy-handed rules that force X to muzzle free speech or face crippling penalties.
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2026-01-13 20:31:53 -0500“Just watch me.” Pierre Elliot Trudeau