EU tells Musk's X to act on Grok sexual deepfakes or face action

By Melike Pala

BRUSSELS (AA) - The European Commission on Monday told Elon Musk's social media platform X that it must urgently tackle the spread of sexually explicit deepfake content generated by its artificial intelligence tool Grok or face regulatory action.

"If they don’t act, we will," the EU Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho warned, citing recent remarks by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemning the use of AI tools to create sexualized images of women and children.

Von der Leyen said she was "appalled" that tech platforms are enabling users "to digitally undress women and children online," calling the practice "unthinkable" and warning that the harm caused by deepfakes is "very real."

"We will not be outsourcing child protection and consent to Silicon Valley. If they don’t act, we will," von der Leyen said in a recent interview with several media outlets.

The warning came amid controversy surrounding Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk's xAI and integrated into X, after reports that it was being used to generate and circulate sexually explicit and abusive images.

Pinho stressed that responsibility lies with the company operating the platform, which serves millions of users.

"It is up to this company to address this, indeed appalling situation. Otherwise, indeed, we will act... This is a very concrete call for the company, which is responsible for these deepfakes, to address it," she said.

Thomas Regnier, another spokesperson, sharply rejected attempts to frame the issue as one of free speech.

"Drawing a parallel between freedom of speech and an AI tool that generates child sexual abuse material is dangerous nonsense, especially when it comes from the owner of a tech company," he said.

Regnier said the Commission sees only two possible paths forward. "The preferred one X fixes its own mess, like Paula just said, or we take the legislative steps that are foreseen in the legislation."

Under the EU's digital and AI rulebooks, platforms can face heavy penalties or enforcement measures if they fail to prevent the spread of illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and non-consensual intimate imagery.

The commission declined to specify what measures it could take against X if the company fails to comply, but stressed that its warning should be taken seriously.