The European Union has initiated an investigation into Elon Musk’s X platform over its AI chatbot, Grok, following reports that the tool was used to generate sexualized deepfake images of women and minors. The move marks the latest official action in a growing international backlash against the AI tool.
The probe was launched after it was discovered that users could manipulate images of women and children with simple text commands to create sexually explicit content.
“In Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated. “The harm caused by illegal images is very real.”
EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen confirmed the investigation aims to “determine whether X has met its legal obligations” under the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), a regulatory framework designed to monitor major technology companies.
Brussels is specifically examining whether X failed to mitigate “risks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material.”
Earlier this month, Grok responded to public criticism by restricting its image generation features to paying subscribers. However, an EU commission spokesman, Thomas Regnier, dismissed the measure, stating, “child sexual abuse material is not a premium privilege.”
A report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a non-profit organization, estimated that Grok had generated approximately three million sexualized images of women and children within a few days.
The EU has also expanded an existing investigation into X concerning the spread of illegal content, as the platform recently announced that Grok would now be used to power its user recommendation system.
X, formerly known as Twitter, has been under investigation by the EU since December 2023. That month, the platform was fined €120 million ($140 million) for violations of DSA transparency rules, including deceptive practices related to its “blue checkmark” verification system.
Under the DSA, violations can lead to fines of up to six percent of a company’s global turnover, with the possibility of banning a platform from Europe for repeated offenses.
In a separate development, the European Commission also added Meta’s WhatsApp to its list of “very large online platforms” subject to stricter DSA rules, specifically targeting its public “channels” feature.
