According to Reuters, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced on Tuesday that it would withdraw from the X platform because the social media site produced and spread "disgusting" indecent images of children. The AFT says the organization represents 1.8 million educators and is one of the largest unions in the United States.
Randi Weingarten, chairman of the AFT, said in an interview with Reuters that X has been severely corrupted by extremists and Internet trolls since Elon Musk acquired it in 2022. However, she pointed out that X’s AI chatbot Grok has recently generated and spread a large number of images of women and children wearing bikinis or underwear without the consent of the parties, making the platform “no longer usable.”
"The Grok AI image generator has no protection measures, which is the straw that breaks the camel's back," she said. "Starting tomorrow, we will no longer use X."
Weingarten said that starting Wednesday, her personal and union accounts will stop being updated. These two accounts have approximately 100,000 and 75,000 fans respectively.
Asked whether withdrawing from X would affect the union's voice, Weingarten said children's safety must come first.
"It's not an easy decision, but it's the right decision," she said. "You have to draw a line. If you're on the 'humanity side' and believe we have to keep children, especially children safe, you have to draw that line."
As of press time, X has not commented on this.
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