Europe opens major probe into Elon Musk’s X after outcry over sexualized images

By Lianne Kolirin, CNN

London (CNN) — The European Union has launched a wide-reaching investigation into Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot on X following global outrage over its ability to generate sexually explicit images, including of children.

The scandal erupted at the end of last year when the AI chatbot churned out a barrage of digitally undressed images of women and children in response to requests from users.

The global outcry that followed was met by an initial announcement by X that the tool would be limited to paying subscribers, but the company eventually prevented all users from using Grok to create images of real people in revealing clothing.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said in a statement Monday that the investigation would examine whether X “properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok’s functionalities into X in the EU.”

Henna Virkkunen, a senior commission official focusing on technology, as well security and democracy, said in the statement: “Sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation. With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations… or whether it treated rights of European citizens – including those of women and children – as collateral damage of its service.”

When contacted for comment, X referred CNN to a January 14 statement on its social media platform that said among other things: “We take action to remove high-priority violative content, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and non-consensual nudity, taking appropriate action against accounts that violate our X rules. We also report accounts seeking Child Sexual Exploitation materials to law enforcement authorities as necessary.”

In a briefing for journalists, another European Commission official acknowledged the measures taken by X so far but said the company had not properly assessed the risks before launching the chatbot.

‘Changing the platform’s behavior’

The probe was opened under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires Big Tech companies to do more to tackle illegal and harmful online content.

There is no timeline for completing the probe nor any indication of what action the European Commision might take based on its findings. However, the official, who asked to remain anonymous, told journalists the body had “quite a few tools at our disposal” and that a fine was possible.

“What we are after is changing the platform’s behavior,” they said.

The EU hit the social media platform with a fine of around $140 million in December, saying the “deceptive design” of its blue verification checkmark and other features violated the Digital Services Act. At the time, Musk called the fine “crazy.”

When asked whether the fine had been paid, the unnamed EU official said it had not but that the company still had time to settle it.

Earlier this month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta also announced an investigation into the “proliferation of non-consensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok.”

Grok is still banned in Indonesia and Malaysia as a result of the image generation controversy. UK regulator Ofcom has also launched a formal investigation into X.

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Hadas Gold and Claire Duffy contributed to this report, which has been updated with additional details and background.