Around the world, governments continue to attack the humanities & social sciences. www.sltrib.com/opinion/comm... The framing around STEM & science with a purpose shows how little they understand research. Apparently, they think that every discovery comes w/a sticky note stating, "My purpose is..."

290 days to go. | General Election to be held on 7 November www.beehive.govt.nz/release/gene... #nzpol

One of the best speeches I've read by a political leader. And certainly, the best, by far, of any political leader in a Trump stained, polycentric world. “Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path” Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/spee...

New publication 📢 Andrew Lensen and I explain how govt priorities on AI mean less regulation and more high-risk AI deployment in NZ. This is about more than just Grok and Elon Musk. #nzpol theconversation.com/sexualised-d...

CEO of New Zealand's Free Speech Union, in an interview with far-right newsfluencer, laid out what their targets would be over '26 (an election year). Would be foolish for initiatives, individuals, institutions, & identities here to not plan for significant harms, haranguing, & harassment. #nzpol

New Zealand considers adverse outcomes of AI over next 2yrs to much higher degree than Australia, as highlighted in the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report 2026 reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Glo... (Page 62) #nzpol

"Guardian Australia has contacted the person believed to have created the account, who is a South African living in New Zealand. They did not respond to multiple approaches." www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

🇵🇭 Elon Musk's platform X announces measures to prevent its AI chatbot Grok from undressing images of real people, as the Philippines becomes the latest country to block the online tool in a growing global backlash. ➡️ u.afp.com/SXje

As always, @sanjanah.bsky.social’s work is important, and shines light on the darkness. It’s awful to see how much support there is for Peters’ worst rhetoric, but it’s important that as NZers we understand how deep this rot goes. And hold Peters responsible for fanning these flames.

Fascinating that NZ's FM publicly lectures RBNZ Governor about respecting statutory independence whilst simultaneously demonstrating precisely why central bankers worldwide felt compelled to defend institutional independence from political interference! The irony has clearly stayed in its own lane.

Of course. It is also an election year, and online gender based violence against candidates WILL ramp up (especially when we do and say nothing about X and Grok). Report image based sexual abuse to the platform you saw it on (gd luck with X), Netsafe, and if egregious to Police. #nzpol

Quelle surprise! #Grok

Tellingly, an ACT MP who wants to criminalise deep fakes was rendered in a bikini in tweets by an infamous NZ account on platform parading as a fake Māori. Similar (& far worse) synthetic media by same account has targeted Green Party co-leaders. More recently, the PM has also been targeted.

An excellent capture by @cwarzel.bsky.social and @matteowong.bsky.social around what can be called misogynist scaffolding, & violent architectures enabling TFGBV at ever greater scale. Very strongly recommend reading. | Elon Musk Cannot Get Away With This www.theatlantic.com/technology/2... #nzpol

UK to bring into force law to tackle #Grok AI deepfakes this week www.bbc.com/news/article... @legallyfeminist.bsky.social

If we continue to treat contending with NCII and AI-enabled sexual abuse as secondary to innovation, we will keep rediscovering the same harm- only louder, faster, and harder to undo, write WITNESS’ Bruna Santos and shirin anlen.

We've launched an investigation into X over Grok sexualised imagery. We've opened a formal investigation into X under the Online Safety Act, to determine whether it has complied with its duties to protect people in the UK from content that is illegal in the UK. 🔗 www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safet...

Ursula von der Leyen has blasted Elon Musk’s platform X over the spread of sexually explicit deepfakes created using its AI chatbot Grok.

"Media companies expect web traffic to their sites from online searches to plummet over the next three years, as AI summaries and chatbots change the way consumers use the internet. An overwhelming majority are also planning to encourage their journalists to behave more like" influencers.

Flagging Grok’s popularity in New Zealand is a dangerous distraction from stark reality: this surge is driven by tool's weaponisation to nudify women, & create CSAM. Celebrating moral failures that prioritise engagement over safety is so emblematic of Twitter/X. @legallyfeminist.bsky.social #nzpol

Indonesia temporarily blocks access to Grok over sexualised images reut.rs/4jvw0JI

Commons women and equalities committee to stop using X amid AI-altered images row www.theguardian.com/technology/2... @legallyfeminist.bsky.social

New: Trio of Dem senators urge Apple and Google to enforce their own terms of service and ban X, Grok apps for their flood of nonconsensual sexual imagery. I've repeatedly asked both Apple and Google about this for three days. They're completely silent, seemingly hoping the question just goes away.

🎯 Given so many suggesting Grok’s violative feature(s) now paywall, this clarification by @hern.bsky.social bears amplification. I don’t have paid account. Captured video of Grok on my iPhone rendering a bikini on a pre-existing AI-generated video featuring a woman. Little to nothing has changed.

I can well believe this. In my own research a limited search phrase linked to requests made to Grok to render bikinis resulted in 1,500 tweets an hour or around 38k a day. As I noted, the actual figure for all violative prompt permutations would be much higher. sanjanah.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/t...

Grok, X’s AI chatbot, is being used to sexualise women, children, and marginalized communities worldwide. Abuse is fast, systematic, & often escapes current laws. What can NZ do? What should NZ do? And what can you do? Check out the info in slides below 👇 (featuring @sanjanah.bsky.social) #nzpol

Look up X on the App Store, scroll down to Report a Problem and fill out the form with this information.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from 66 international bodies, including the Freedom Online Coalition. With this move, the US has formally stepped away from a core part of its leadership of the global Internet norms it once helped build, writes Konstantinos Komaitis.

The Grok ‘bikini trend’: A rapid study of TFGBV, Nazi imagery, and religious desecration www.linkedin.com/pulse/grok-b... (LinkedIn) sanjanah.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/t... (WordPress) #nzpol #Grok #Twitter #TFGBV

If you thought Elon Musk's “Grok” chatbot couldn't get worse, read my latest article: Grok isn't just undressing women, it's now putting swastika bikinis on them. One woman who was targeted is a recently-deceased Holocaust survivor.

This tracks.

Re-sharing for the new year, which is also an election year! If you agree, help us out by emailing your local MP asking why Labour and National have not yet signed this letter or committed to regulating AI deployment in NZ. #nzpol

Know some folks in NZ were looking for this: injunction restraining publication or use of data stolen in a cyber-attack on Manage My Health Ltd’s online patient portal www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/manage... #nzpol

Thanks @sanjanah.bsky.social If you didn’t catch it the first time, here’s some uplifting summer viewing

The increasing threat posed by xAI’s Grok to women, girls, and public figures www.linkedin.com/pulse/increa... (LinkedIn) sanjanah.wordpress.com/2026/01/06/t... (WordPress)

This video conversation in Oct '25 with Surabhi Singh from Newsreel Asia is topical again given Twitter/xAI #Grok's most recent violative behaviours. | Chatbots enabled misogyny: A conversation on how AI augments gender harms online sanjanah.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/c...

The thinly-veiled signalling of the Christchurch terrorist's violent extremism in the latest Voices for Freedom email, amongst the other things noted, is an indication of what to expect this year. @paulapenfold.bsky.social's 'Fire & Fury' is worth rewatching. interactives.stuff.co.nz/2022/08/circ...

really feel sick after covering the predictable uses of grok imagine on x (formerly twitter) to generate nonconsensual intimate images & sexualized images of kids. even covering fatal & injurious car crashes from defective tech cannot prepare one for this.

Terrible headline from Stuff that renders as clickbait (echoing what FSU misleadingly say) what's a more complex, important issue anchored in policy, rights, and principles. | Is the .nz domain about to be censored? Inside the battle that took over ‘a group of geeks’ www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Is Netsafe taking this up too? @legallyfeminist.bsky.social

Couple of days ago, Leo Molloy (who is more regularly fixated on, & targets Jacinda Ardern in ways that are sickeningly misogynistic) posted a video about Brigitte Macron (the wife of President Emmanuel Macron of France). I studied it, and wrote about what he said about her, & how. #nzpol

French and Malaysian authorities are investigating Grok for generating sexualized deepfakes techcrunch.com/2026/01/04/f... @legallyfeminist.bsky.social

Chinese cyberattacks on Taiwan infrastructure averaged 2.6 million a day in 2025, report says www.reuters.com/world/china/...

Designation of Terrorgram, and Order of Nine Angles in New Zealand www.linkedin.com/pulse/design... (LinkedIn) sanjanah.wordpress.com/2026/01/05/d... (WordPress) #nzpol

Not for the first time, laying waste to "lone wolf" framing. | How a Global Online Network of White Supremacists Groomed a Teen to Kill www.propublica.org/article/tele...

Prof Patman swinging here "It's a direct challenge for countries like New Zealand, which support the view that international relations should be based on rules, procedures and laws" That goes straight to the rhetoric party leaders like to use about the rules based international order

Whatever you might think of Maduro, the seizure and kidnapping of a head of state takes us to a very dark place. Vast, arbitrary, extra-legal power, which could be exercised almost anywhere, regardless of the character of the target government.

But when will Grok "apologise" for allowing (and worse, encouraging) the rape of a chatbot role playing as a minor? | xAI's Grok Chatbots: Violent misogyny, and CSAM at a planetary scale www.linkedin.com/pulse/xais-g...

"Meta and TikTok are obstructing researchers’ access to data, "the European Commission rules Data are needed to study how social media spreads misinformation and influences elections, scientists say." www.science.org/content/arti...