The European Commission has initiated an investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X over allegations that its AI tool, Grok, was used to generate sexualized images of real individuals. This development echoes a prior announcement from the UK’s Ofcom watchdog earlier this year, indicating growing international scrutiny of the platform’s content moderation practices.
Should the investigation determine that X has violated the Digital Services Act (DSA) regulations, the company could face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. In a statement issued previously by X’s Safety account, the platform declared it had taken steps to prevent Grok from altering images to depict nudity in regions where such alterations are illegal.
Regina Doherty, an Irish member of the European Parliament, highlighted the Commission’s focus on evaluating whether users in the EU have been exposed to manipulated sexually explicit images. Advocacy groups and individuals who have been victims of such images have emphasized that the capacity to create sexually explicit content using this tool should have never been possible. Ofcom reiterated that its own investigation into the matter remains active.
The EU has warned that it could “impose interim measures” if X fails to make significant changes in response to the findings. The Commission is also expanding its investigation, which began in December 2023, into risks linked with X’s recommendation algorithms, which dictate the posts that users see on their feeds.
Amid this investigation, Musk shared an image on X that seemed to mock the new restrictions surrounding Grok. Previously, he has criticized the critiques aimed at the app’s image-editing capabilities, particularly those coming from the UK government, labeling them as justifications for censorship.
According to the Grok account on X, the AI tool has generated more than 5.5 billion images in just a month’s time. Meanwhile, multiple investigations into the chatbot functionality of the platform are underway in countries like Australia, France, and Germany. Notably, Grok faced a temporary ban in Indonesia and Malaysia, though the ban has since been lifted in Malaysia.
Henna Virkkunen, serving as Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy at the European Commission, condemned sexually explicit deepfakes as a “violent, unacceptable form of degradation.” She commented on the investigation, stating it aims to ascertain whether X has complied with its legal responsibilities under the DSA, or if it has treated the rights of European citizens, particularly women and children, as secondary considerations.
In response to the situation, Doherty underscored the importance of platforms like X adhering to their legal obligations to mitigate the spread of illegal and harmful content online. She affirmed that the European Union has established clear guidelines to protect individuals in the digital space and insisted that these rules should be upheld when advanced technologies are utilized.
This inquiry arrives on the heels of a recent penalty imposed by the EU, wherein X was fined €120 million (£105 million) for misrepresenting its blue tick verification badges, claiming they mislead users by failing to adequately verify account ownership.
On the other side of the Atlantic, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have criticized the EU’s actions, framing them as attacks on American technology platforms. Rubio voiced concerns that the European Commission’s fine represents an infringement on all American tech firms, asserting that it undermines American interests on a global scale. Musk echoed this sentiment by sharing Rubio’s remarks, amplifying his approval of the critique.
