Elon Musk's X has been hit by a European Union probe over concerns it failed to prevent its Grok AI chatbot from spewing out deepfake images “that may amount to child sexual abuse material.”
The European Commission said the investigation, which risks another wave of criticism from White House, will check whether the social-media platform properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok into X in the 27-nation EU.
“Non-consensual sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation,” said EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen. The case falls under the bloc's online content rulebook, the Digital Services Act, which places strict guardrails on harmful and illegal material on the web.
Global condemnation of Grok has escalated over recent weeks after users across multiple countries flagged the AI chatbot for generating sexualized imagery and posting it to X, prompting swift rebukes from regulators and child safety advocates. UK communications regulator Ofcom is already formally investigating whether X breached the nation's Online Safety Act. France and India have also weighed in, accusing Grok of illegally creating sexualized images of people without their consent.
X, a subsidiary of xAI, pointed to a previous statement that it removes illegal content including child sexual abuse material, suspends accounts and works with law enforcement where necessary.
“We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content,” it said.
The Grok probe follows on the heels of a separate €120 million ($142 million) EU penalty levied under the DSA, which the Trump administration sees as a flagrant attack on freedom of speech. In that case, watchdogs concluded that X's paid-for blue tick symbol misled users, the platform stonewalled giving researchers access to data and it failed to properly set up an advertising repository.
Under the DSA, which took effect in 2023, the EU can slap online platforms with fines of as much as 6% of their annual global revenue for failing to tackle illegal content and disinformation or follow transparency rules.
Ahead of the EU's fine in December, US Vice President JD Vance posted on X that “the EU should be supporting free speech not attacking American companies over garbage.”
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