This Is A Failed Government

The Taoiseach Micheál Martin, when asked if it’s appropriate for the Irish government to continue to use X given Grok is facilitating the generation of thousands of sexualised, nonconsensual, and illegal images of women and children per hour, said that "platforms can be misused and abused or they can be used for positive reasons as well..." and that should be taken into account "before jumping to conclusions".

It strikes me that Micheál Martin becomes so tetchy when his decisions are questioned, be that about the speaking rights fiasco or Jim Gavin, that his default reaction is now to deny and defend. He has become so adamant in defending a position, any position, that he has lost the ability to see the wood from the trees.

85% of images generated by X’s Grok are sexualised images and yet the Taoiseach not only doesn’t think it’s appropriate for the government to stop using X, he doesn’t seem to have any urgency or intent in enacting the law against the illegal CSAM already generated by Grok that is accessible to the public. Instead, Minister for AI Niamh Smith has requested a meeting with X.

In response to the same question by Mike Finnerty of the Fianna Fáil press office, they suggest that people report images they are concerned about online to An Garda Síochana, echoing the concerned response from Tánaiste Simon Harris.

When asked by Richard Chambers, Minister Peter Burke said “If it continues, it would be something I’d be hugely concerned about. This has to stop.”. Does he mean it's ok to break the law as long as you don't continue to do so?

Minster for Media Patrick O’Donovan has washed his hands of any responsibility to regulate media, or even enforce the law, by saying "At the end of the day, it's the choice of a person to make these images... technology is moving so fast... even if the law is changed there's no doubt about... the advances are far faster than law is able to respond...".

It also appears that he thinks Grok’s illegal content generator feature just organically appeared like a tree in the forest rather than being created with intention by the company whose European headquarters are in Dublin.

"It's not necessarily the app that's making the images... it's people using the app that's making the images. Making images of that sort is reprehensible..."

I'm in disbelief as to why it isn't the natural reaction of every government minister, let alone the Taoiseach, to say they've asked the Garda commissioner to expedite an investigation into this gross and large-scale breach of the law by X, and for that to be quickly followed by a raid of the X office in Dublin by the Gardaí.

The question about why this isn’t the case leads down a dark road.

The government are currently scapegoating and blaming immigration for their myriad failures on housing, homelessness, health provision, etc, with the Tánaiste Simon Harris continuing his campaign of lies against immigrants, and Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan blaming immigrants for a potential breakdown of social cohesion. If the government went looking for supporters of these racists and disgusting opinions, they would generally be found among those still using X.

Supporters of these racist and disgusting opinions are currently providing a bulwark to the government to continue with said scapegoating. Perhaps the government don’t want to deny those supporters of their far-right online megaphones on X, despite X's AI bot Grok generating large amounts of CSAM in just a few days.

Perhaps the government don’t want to draw upon themselves the ire of the fascist billionaire that owns X.

Perhaps the government don’t want to draw upon themselves the attention of the fascist dictator in the White House.

Perhaps the government are victims of Hanlon’s Razor.

Or perhaps the government simply don’t care anymore, to protect women and children, to house its people, to protect the country from corporate takeover in housing and media, to enact legislation with any modicum of urgency, or to protect the country from the climate emergency.

Whatever the motivation or reasons, the result is the same.
This is a failed government.