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Elon Musks AI chatbot Grok wont be able to edit photos to portray real people in revealing clothing in places where that is illegal, according to a statement posted on X. The announcement late Wednesday followed a global backlash over sexualized images of women and children, including bans and warnings by some governments. The pushback included an investigation announced Wednesday by the state of California, the U.S.’s most populous, into the proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok that it said was harassing women and girls. Initially, media queries about the problem drew only the response, legacy media lies. Musks company, xAI, now says it will geoblock content if it violates laws in a particular place. We have implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing such as bikinis, underwear and other revealing attire, it said. The rule applies to all users, including paid subscribers, who have access to more features. xAI also has limited image creation or editing to paid subscribers only to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable. Groks spicy mode had allowed users to create explicit content, leading to a backlash from governments worldwide. Malaysia and Indonesia took legal action and blocked access to Grok, while authorities in the Philippines said they were working to do the same, possibly within the week. The U.K. and European Union were investigating potential violations of online safety laws. France and India have also issued warnings, demanding stricter controls. Brazil called for an investigation into Groks misuse. The British government, which has been one of Grok’s most vociferous critics in recent days, has welcomed the change, while the country’s regulator, Ofcom, said it would carry on with its investigation. I shall not rest until all social media platforms meet their legal duties and provide a service that is safe and age-appropriate to all users, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said. California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged xAI to ensure there is no further harassment of women and girls from Grok’s editing functions. We have zero tolerance for the AI-based creation and dissemination of nonconsensual intimate images or of child sexual abuse material, he said. California has passed laws to shield minors from AI-generated sexual imagery of children and require AI chatbot platforms to remind users they arent interacting with a human. But Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also vetoed a law last year that would have restricted childrens access to AI chatbots. Elaine Kurtenbach, AP business writer Pan Pylas in London contributed to this report.
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E-Commerce
Noodles & Company is set to close additional restaurants. In a January 12 press release, Noodles & Company announced plans to close between 30 and 35 restaurants in 2026, with the aim of improving financial health and profitability. As of December 30, 2025, the fast-casual noodle chain had 340 company-owned restaurants and 83 franchise restaurants. The eatery already reduced its footprint last year, when it closed 42 restaurants (33 were company-owned, and nine were franchise locations). Decisions like this are made thoughtfully and with a long-term view of the business,” Joe Christina, CEO and president of Noodles & Company, shared in the company press release. “Our fourth quarter results reinforce that when we concentrate our resources on restaurants with the strongest opportunity to perform, Noodles can drive meaningful top-line growth. That performance gives us added confidence as we continue to refine our portfolio in 2026. These actions are intended to strengthen the overall health of the brand and our financial position, helping to ensure we are well-positioned for profitable growth and long-term value creation for our shareholders, Christina continued. Retail and restaurant closures are becoming more common Noodles & Company isnt the only company announcing closures. Unfortunately, its becoming more common. Last week, the fast-casual salad and wrap chain Salad & Go confirmed it would close 32 locations by January 11. The company shuttered 25 stores in Texas and seven in Oklahoma. As a result, Salad & Go no longer operates restaurants in either state. Macys has also continued to reduce its footprint. The department store announced it would close 150 underproductive stores by the end of January 2027. In a January 9 news release, Macys confirmed a list of 66 locations set to close, two of which have already closed. Video game retailer GameStop also plans to shutter more stores early this year. The company has not yet announced how many stores it will close in 2026. But in recent days, customers have taken to social media to share store closure signs. In its third-quarter earnings report on December 9, GameStop shared that it had closed 590 stores in the U.S. in the previous fiscal year. And after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2025, American Signature is set to permanently close all Value City Furniture and American Signature Furniture stores.
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E-Commerce
Satellite communications networks have proved resilient amid a crackdown. Amid growing protests and escalating violence in Iran, the countrys government has blocked access to domestic communications systems and imposed a nearly week-long internet blackout. But Starlink, the satellite internet service run by SpaceX, only uses personal terminals that connect to its constellation, and doesnt rely on any regime-controlled infrastructure. As a result, technology has now become a lifeline, and one of the only ways people in Iran can bring their disturbing reality on the ground to the rest of the world. The biggest part of the communication [in the country] is being handled by Starlink, Amir Rashidi, the director of internet security and digital rights at the Miaan Group, an organization thats been tracking the communications blackout in Iran, tells Fast Company. Without the Starlink, you won’t see any of these videos, or you won’t receive any news. Indeed, it is still incredibly difficult to ascertain firsthand information from inside Iran. Foreign reporters only have limited access to the country, and phone calls have also been restricted by the government. The full extent of the carnage is unclear, but some officials suspect thousands of people may already be dead. More may happen with Starlink in Iran in the coming days. SpaceX has now waived the initial Starlink subscription fee for users in Iran, and organizers have been sharing details on how to use the technology, as securely as possible, amid a brutal crackdown. President Donald Trump said earlier this week he plans to communicate with Elon Musk about expanding service in the region. The Trump Administration is committed to helping to preserve and protect the free flow of information by the most effective means to the people of Iran in the face of the Iranian regimes brutal repression, a State Department spokesperson, declining to share more specifics, told Fast Company on Wednesday. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment. The situation is a reminder that, in an emergencyand amid political upheavalinternet access can be a critical tool. Indeed, its easy to view Starlink as a fundamentally authoritarian-proof technology. But satellite internet, like any platform, isnt completely immune from authoritarian intimidation. And while SpaceX is providing a critical service in the moment, the company, and Elon Musk, are private entities whose goals arent guaranteed to align with values of free speech, or even the foreign policy interests of the United States. The fundamental issue is that the interests of Elon Musk are not the interests of the United States, Gordon LaForge, a researcher at the think tank New America, tells Fast Company. Sometimes they might be in alignment, but sometimes they won’t be. Limited access Right now, even as protests overtake much of the country, only a small number of Iranians there have access to Starlink terminals, which are generally needed to connect to the countrys constellation of low-Earth satellites. This hardware can be difficult to come by. Iran doesnt have authorized Starlink sellers, which means ordinary people need to find them on the black market, where they’re expensive, as Forbes previously reported several years ago. Right now, there just arent that many terminals overall, though reports indicate the number has grown recently. As of December 2022, Elon Musk had said there were around 100 terminals in the country. By the end of 2024, there were reportedly about 20,000 Iranian users, and there are possibly tens of thousands more there now, Rashidi says. Still, 90 million people live in Iran, which means most people wont have Starlink anytime soon. But the Iranian government is also taking active steps to disrupt the service. The Iranian legislature passed a law banning Starlink last year, and people who use it face the risk of going to prison, or, potentially, the death penalty, if theyre accused of using the technology for espionage. Though the Iranian government has, in the past, complained about how easy it is to hide Starlink devicessome hardware can fit in a backpackofficials have also reportedly started scanning the country for signs of terminals, even using drones to hunt for dishes and terminals that might be installed on rooftops. Starlink might also be susceptible to jamming. The Iranian government appears to have partially interfered with the service, in some places, by jamming the GPS connection that Starlink relies on, and, in effect, reducing Starlinks total capabilities. One Iranian internet access group, in a post on X, said they were able to collaborate with SpaceX on a software update that blunted the impact of this interference. Notably, these issues dont seem to have taken Starlink completely offline, and Penn State professor Sascha Meinrath, who studies satellite constellation bandwidth, told Fast Company that this method may only work in fairly constrained areas. Rashidi, from the Miaan Group, likened the jamming to a nuisance. It was like a fly sitting on your face or on your nose. You can easily move your hand and push the fly away, he told Fast Company. You feel uncomfortable, but that won’t kill you. Still, this disruption may foreshadow future attempts by other governments to try to undercut Starlink service, and shows there are ways to undermine the service. Down the line, as SpaceXs commercial infrastructure becomes increasingly enmeshed in U.S. national security and defense systems, theres also an increasing incentive for foreign adversaries to investigate ways to take it down. Researchers in China have already studied ways to jam a service like Starlink with a swarm of drones. Who benefits? Starlink often becomes a key communication platform in places experiencing incredible political upheaval, includingmost recentlyin Ukraine, Gaza, and Venezuela. In emergencies, it might even help provide the service. SpaceX provided free terminals to Ukraine, and is providing free Starlink connections in Venezuela until next month. Internet access is critical for people on the ground, but theyre also geopolitical: These deals have further lubricated SpaceXs relationship with the U.S. government, and, today, the company now holds myriad contracts with both civilian and defense agencies. The State Department is even actively promoting the Starlink service globally, particularly in Africa, as ProPublica reported last year. But while these deals might read through the lens of anti-authoritarianism, or internet freedom, they should primarily be understood as efforts to advance U.S. foreign policy interests, and the interests of SpaceX and Elon Musk, experts tell Fast Company. Theres always the risk that Musk, or SpaceX leadership, will switch off the service in order to effect a desired political outcome. In one critical example: a few years ago, Musk suddenly ordered the shutdown of the Starlink service in one contested area in Ukraine, leaving troops without communications and disrupting their counteroffensive, according to Reuters reporting last year. Take Ukraine, where Starlink is indispensable to the Ukrainian military, Gordon LaForge, a senior policy analyst at the liberal think tank New America, tells Fast Company. When Musk threatened to withdraw Starlink, the Pentagon stepped in to pay for the service. And of course Musk personally attains a level of direct geopolitical influence that few other individual businesspersons or private citizens of any sort can achieve. SpaceX uses geopolitical conflicts to showcase its ability and the indispensability of its services for secure communications, adds Joscha Abel, a researcher based at the University of Tübingen who has written about the service. Tech corporations like SpaceX frequently align themselves with the geostrategic objectives of the U.S. government to earn profitable public contracts and see their technologies embedded in national security and military planning. In other words, Starlink had been marketed to Ukraine as a liberatory technology that would help them in their fight against Russia, but depending on it ultimately subjected its troops to the political preferences of the companys leadership. And while Musk has fashioned himself a free speech advocate, he has, in the past, taken steps to silence critics on his social media platform, X. Like many other leaders, he also has business ties in some authoritarian countries, places operating open platforms wont always necessarily suit his business interests. When an essential technological instrument of U.S. policy is in the hands of a private individualand a mercurial one at that, explains LaForge, it increases the risk of policy capture and outcomes that are not in the public interest.”
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E-Commerce
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