Jess Asato’s public campaigning for victims of online abuse put her in the crosshairs of Grok’s deepfake scandal. Then the UK member of parliament became a victim of the abuse herself.

Photo-Illustration: WIRED STAFF; House of Commons/Laurie Noble

Few people understand the current deepfake epidemic better than Jess Asato. The British Labour MP has spent years campaigning against the use of technology to abuse women and girls. Then, after calling out Elon Musk during the notorious Grok Deepfake Scandal of 2025 , Asato found herself caught in the very crisis she had been trying to prevent.

Disturbing and degrading deepfake images of the MP circulated widely. One appeared to depict a sexual assault. When Asato reported them to X, the platform repeatedly dismissed her complaints. So she decided to take the fight somewhere else: the courts. She is now pursuing legal action against Musk’s xAI , arguing that it unlawfully used her image without her consent.…