LONDON: The Saudi investor who has reportedly taken a stake in the UK-based Independent news site will have no editorial control over the title, a source close to him told Arab News.
It emerged this week that 42-year-old Sultan Mohammed Abuljadayel had acquired a 30 percent stake in Independent Digital News and Media, the website’s parent company which is owned by Evgeny Lebedev, the son of the Russian billionaire Alexander Lebedev.
It is understood to be part of a broader push into the Middle East, with Arabic and Urdu versions of the website being planned.
News of the purchase raised questions by some commentators over the whether the site’s editorial independence would be preserved following the transaction.
But a source close to Abuljadayel said that the deal was purely an investment move and that there was “no editorial control.”
The Independent newspaper was founded 30 years ago to shake up the partisan mainstream media, with a focus on impartial political coverage and creative use of photography.
It went online-only 18 months ago and has more than doubled its online audience since — with a huge increase in its US audience before and after the US presidential elections.
Independent Editor Christian Broughton, in an interview with Financial Times on Saturday, said that the website’s editorial integrity would not be compromised by the deal.
“There is a shareholder agreement which now says in categorical cast iron terms that no shareholders can influence the editor of the Independent,” he told the newspaper.
“You only have to look at the Independent’s editorial line on Saudi Arabia. We take a strong view on these things and report on the whole region as we see fit.”
Saudi investor in Independent news site ‘to have no editorial control’
Saudi investor in Independent news site ‘to have no editorial control’
Grok faces more scrutiny over deepfakes as Irish regulator opens EU privacy investigation
- The regulator says Grok has created and shared sexualized images of real people, including children. Researchers say some examples appear to involve minors
- X also faces other probes in Europe over illegal content and user safety
LONDON: Elon Musk’s social media platform X faces a European Union privacy investigation after its Grok AI chatbot started spitting out nonconsensual deepfake images, Ireland’s data privacy regulator said Tuesday.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission said it notified X on Monday that it was opening the inquiry under the 27-nation EU’s strict data privacy regulations, adding to the scrutiny X is facing in Europe and other parts of the world over Grok’s behavior.
Grok sparked a global backlash last month after it started granting requests from X users to undress people with its AI image generation and editing capabilities, including putting females in transparent bikinis or revealing clothing. Researchers said some images appeared to include children. The company later introduced some restrictions on Grok, though authorities in Europe weren’t satisfied.
The Irish watchdog said its investigation focuses on the apparent creation and posting on X of “potentially harmful” nonconsensual intimate or sexualized images containing or involving personal data from Europeans, including children.
X did not respond to a request for comment.
Grok was built by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI and is available through X, where its responses to user requests are publicly visible.
The watchdog said the investigation will seek to determine whether X complied with the EU data privacy rules known as GDPR, or the General Data Protection Regulation. Under the rules, the Irish regulator takes the lead on enforcing the bloc’s privacy rules because X’s European headquarters is in Dublin. Violations can result in hefty fines.
The regulator “has been engaging” with X since media reports started circulating weeks earlier about “the alleged ability of X users to prompt the @Grok account on X to generate sexualized images of real people, including children,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a press statement.
Spain’s government has ordered prosecutors to investigate X, Meta and TikTok for alleged crimes related to the creation and proliferation of AI-generated child sex abuse material on their platforms, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Tuesday.
“These platforms are attacking the mental health, dignity and rights of our sons and daughters,” Sánchez wrote on X.
Spain announced earlier this month that it was pursuing a ban on access to social media platforms for under-16s.
Earlier this month, French prosecutors raided X’s Paris offices and summoned Musk for questioning. Meanwhile, the data privacy and media regulators in Britain, which has left the EU, have opened their own investigations into X.
The platform is already facing a separate EU investigation from Brussels over whether it has been complying with the bloc’s digital rulebook for protecting social media users that requires platforms to curb the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse material.
