The European Union has formally launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s social media company X over what it described as deepfakes of undressed women and children generated by its intelligence-powered chatbot Grok.
The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, said Monday it is looking into whether Musk’s tech company violated the Digital Services Act, which requires platforms such as X to prevent the spread of manipulated sexually explicit images including child sexual abuse material.
“Sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation,” Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive vice-president overseeing tech, said in a statement.
“With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens — including those of women and children — as collateral damage of its service.”
The Commission cited what it called the alleged “dissemination of illegal content, negative effects in relation to gender-based violence, and serious negative consequences to physical and mental well-being stemming from deployments of Grok’s functionalities into its platform” in launching the probe.
EU officials warned X could face penalties of up to 6% of global annual revenue if violations are confirmed.
Musk’s Grok AI bot sparked outrage late last year after the X app was flooded with images of women whose appearances were digitally altered to make them look like they were in bikinis or lingerie even though the original photos showed them fully clothed.
The alterations were made when users were able to ask Grok to undress them without their prior consent.
One analysis conducted by researcher Genevieve Oh found that Grok generated approximately 7,750 sexually suggestive or “nudifying” images an hour.
Ashley St. Clair, the social media influencer who gave birth to an infant boy fathered by Musk, filed a lawsuit against the billionaire’s AI startup, xAI, which created Grok.
She alleged in a court filing that Musk’s bot generated deepfake images of her as a nude child and retaliated against her — by demonetizing her X account — when she demanded that the harassment stop.
Earlier this month, Musk’s company moved to crack down on the deepfakes. Grok told users in early January that “image generation and editing are currently limited to paying subscribers.”
Musk also posted that people using Grok to make illegal content would “suffer the same consequences” as if they were uploading such content.
Regulators outside the EU moved quickly to scrutinize Grok as over the deepfakes backlash spread.
In the United Kingdom, media watchdog Ofcom launched a formal investigation into the chatbot, citing concerns similar to those raised in Europe about the creation and spread of sexually explicit and potentially illegal images.
Authorities in Australia, France and Germany have also opened investigations into Grok over the sexual deepfake controversy, forming part of a broader, coordinated international response.
While the specific regulatory bodies and enforcement mechanisms vary, officials in each country cited the same core concern: that Grok enabled nonconsensual sexualized imagery of real people, including minors, at scale.
In the United States, action has come at the state level, with Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general, announcing an investigation.
In Asia, regulators have gone further.
Indonesia and Malaysia both imposed temporary bans on Grok, though Malaysia later lifted its restriction.
A representative for Musk was not immediately available for comment.
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