American Federation of Teachers Announces Departure from Musk's Social Platform X

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced on Tuesday that it will withdraw from Elon Musk's social platform X, citing the platform's creation and dissemination of various "disgusting" pornographic images.

AFT President Randi Weingarten stated in an interview that since Musk took over X (then known as Twitter) in 2022, the site has been eroded by extremists and online trolls. A recent surge in non-consensual images generated by X's AI chatbot, Grok, depicting women and children in bikinis or underwear has rendered the platform unusable.

"The Grok AI image generator has no safeguards, and that was the final straw," she said. "Starting tomorrow, we will no longer use Twitter, or X."

X has not yet responded to the AFT's announcement. When asked for comment on the AFT's decision, xAI, another company owned by Musk, provided only a generic reply.

X has faced increasing international scrutiny after Grok began publicly sharing a large volume of hyper-realistic images of women, sometimes even minors, in bikinis or posed in sexually demeaning or violent positions. Subsequently, X adjusted the chatbot's behavior to stop posting images generated or edited by Grok to the public timeline, but the bot still digitally removes people's clothing.

The American Federation of Teachers stated that it represents 1.8 million educators, making it one of the largest unions in the United States. Weingarten said she created her account on the platform, then Twitter, 15 years ago. She noted that she has already reduced her posting activity due to the proliferation of propaganda and disinformation on the site.

Weingarten said that starting Wednesday, both her personal account and the AFT's official account, which have approximately 100,000 and 75,000 followers respectively, will be deactivated.

When asked about the potential impact of the union's departure from X, Weingarten emphasized that the union must prioritize children's safety above all else.

"This is not an easy decision, but it is the right decision," she said. "You have to draw a line. If you are in the humanitarian camp and you believe we must protect children, you have to draw that line."