Elon Musk Announces 'Manipulated Media' Label on X Images

After the Grok debacle on X, which saw people — mainly women, and even minors — undressed with Elon Musk’s AI chatbot, the platform’s owner has now announced it is rolling out a label on misleading pictures.

But as TechCrunch notes, details on the feature are scant. Musk shared a post from DogeDesigner saying, “Edited visuals warning.” DogeDesigner, an anonymous account that often announces new features on X, says that “𝕏 now puts a clear warning on posts that use fake or edited visuals to trick people,” adding, “This makes it harder for legacy media groups to spread misleading clips or pictures.”

Edited visuals warning https://t.co/0OIz5PvwSz

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2026

In the example DogeDesigner gives, there is a “Stay informed. Manipulated Media. Find Out More” tag at the bottom of a video. But there is no other information on exactly how it works or when it is rolling out. The recent manipulated photo shared by the White House of a protester being arrested in Minnesota doesn’t have the label.

Twitter, as the platform was known before Musk’s takeover, previously had a similar system for labeling “deceptively altered” photos and videos that was rolled out in 2020.

But attempting to label misleading images that have been either edited or AI-generated is notoriously difficult. Meta found this out when when it tried to introduce “Made With AI” labels on Instagram. As PetaPixel reported in 2024, the labels created confusion as photographers had their posts slapped with the tags for minimal editing or even just for cropping an image in Photoshop. Meta platforms now use “AI Info”, rather than Made With AI.

𝕏 just rolled out prominent “Manipulated media” warnings on posts containing edited or fake images and videos

Posts that include doctored media intended to mislead or trick users are now clearly flagged with a “Manipulated media” label

𝕏 is the only platform where what you… pic.twitter.com/pVgsQXTQyL

— X Freeze (@XFreeze) January 28, 2026

PetaPixel was one of the first publications to report on the Grok undressing scandal, which terrorized many women. Photos of people who aren’t even on the platform were being uploaded to X just so sinister users could “put them in a bikini”. The scandal prompted a ban in a few countries in Asia and an investigation by the E.U. Musk restricted the tool after the backlash.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.