Downing Street has condemned the move by X to restrict its AI image creation tool to paying subscribers as insulting, saying it simply made the ability to generate explicit and unlawful images a premium service.

There has been widespread anger after the image tool for Grok, the AI element of X, was used to manipulate thousands of images of women and sometimes children to remove their clothing or put them in sexual positions.

Grok announced in a post on X, which is owned by Elon Musk, that the ability to generate and edit images would be “limited to paying subscribers”. Those who pay have to provide personal details, meaning they could be identified if the function was misused.

Asked about the change, a Downing Street spokesperson said it was unacceptable. “The move simply turns an AI feature that allows the creation of unlawful images into a premium service,” they said.

“It’s not a solution. In fact, it’s insulting to victims of misogyny and sexual violence. What it does prove is that X can move swiftly when it wants to do so. You heard the prime minister yesterday. He was abundantly clear that X needs to act, and needs to act now. It is time for X to grip this issue.

“If another media company had billboards in town centres showing unlawful images, it would act immediately to take them down or face public backlash.”

Asked if No 10 was going to take any further action, such as leaving X, the spokesperson said “all options are on the table”, and that it would support any action taken by Ofcom, the UK’s media regulator.

Speaking earlier on Friday, Anna Turley, the Labour party chair and a minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, said there was no move as yet for the government to leave X, but individual ministers were considering doing so.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It’s really, really important that we tackle this. Those conversations are ongoing across government. I think all of us in politics are evaluating our use of social media and how we do that, and I know that conversation is happening.”

Asked if she would leave the site, Turley said: “I’ve thought about that a lot over the past few months.” Asked whether the Labour party would do so, she said: “Those conversations are taking place because it’s really important that we make sure that we’re in a safe space.”

The victim’s commissioner, Claire Waxman, said X was no longer a “safe space” for victims and her office was considering scaling back its presence on the site and focusing its communications on Instagram.

“It makes the battle against violence against women and girls much harder when platforms such as X are enabling abuse on such an easy and regular basis,” Waxman said, adding that the platform was having a negative impact on its users’ mental health because of the proliferation of violence, abuse and race hate.

“Why is that material not being taken down and those users being stopped?” she asked. “It is not safeguarding its users.” Waxman said she was concerned about Ofcom’s ability to police platforms such as X effectively. “Does Ofcom have the teeth to be able to really deal with these sorts of issues? That is a concern for me.”

There has been an exodus of women’s sector organisations from X. The domestic abuse charity Refuge left the site, as has Women’s Aid Ireland and Victim Support. Victim Support left in April, saying it was “no longer the right place for us to communicate with our audiences”. Women’s Aid Ireland said the decision was taken because of “increased levels of unchecked hate, misogyny, racism and anti-LGBTI+ content on the platform”.

Emma Pickering, the head of technology at Refuge, said the decision by X to restrict access to the image tool for Grok to paying subscribers amounted to “the monetisation of abuse”.