Jan. 26 (UPI) — The European Commission announced Sunday that it is investigating X’s Grok artificial intelligence chatbot over allegations that the platform allows people to manipulate images and undress women and girls without their consent.
The European Commission’s investigation was launched under the European Union’s Digital Services Act. The Commission is extending its ongoing investigation of X’s recommender systems, which launched in December 2023. That investigation is looking into whether X’s algorithm that recommends specific posts to X users is disseminating illegal content, such as child sexual abuse material.
If X is found to have broken the EU’s laws under the DSA, the Commission could fine the company up to 6% of its total global revenue.
Before the announcement, Elon Musk, owner of X, posted an image appearing to joke about the ongoing investigations.
EU Executive Vice President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkkunen said the deepfakes were a “violent, unacceptable form of degradation.”
“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,” Virkkunen said.
On Dec. 5, the EU fined X $140 million over its lack of clarity with its blue checkmark for verified users. The EU said X wasn’t “meaningfully verifying” who is behind verified accounts.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded, saying the EU is attacking American companies.
“The European Commission’s fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments,” he said.
The United Kingdom recently began an investigation into the platform, and xAI announced on Jan. 14 that it would stop allowing Grok to undress images of real people. It also said it will “geoblock in jurisdictions where such content is illegal, the ability of all users in those locations to generate images of real people in bikinis, underwear, and similar attire in Grok on X, and xAI is implementing similar geoblocking measures for the Grok app.”
Malaysia and Indonesia blocked Grok completely over the controversy, but Malaysia has since lifted its ban. Australia, France and Germany are also investigating the app.
