The European Commission has opened a new investigation against Platform X for possible violations of the Digital Services Act following the launch of Grok and the appearance of AI-generated sexual images on the platform.
The European Commission has opened a new investigation against Platform X for possible violations of the Digital Services Act following the launch of Grok and the appearance of AI-generated sexual images on the platform.
According to Engadget, the regulator is investigating whether X took sufficient measures to mitigate the risks after integrating Grok. The risks include the distribution of manipulated sexual images, including material that could be prohibited as child sexual abuse content. The European Commission said that these risks have likely already materialized and could have caused serious harm to users in the EU.
Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, Genna Virkkunen, stressed that sexualised fake images of women and children are an unacceptable form of violence and humiliation. As part of the investigation, the regulator must determine whether X has fulfilled its obligations to protect the rights of EU citizens, or whether it has allowed a situation in which these rights have become collateral damage to the service.
Separately, the European Commission announced the expansion of another case against X, opened in 2023. It concerns recommendation algorithms and tools designed to limit the spread of illegal content. The new phase of the investigation focuses specifically on the risks associated with the use of generative AI on the platform.
X said the platform has a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content, and promised to cooperate with regulators.
The Digital Services Act obliges large online platforms not only to respond to illegal content, but also to assess the systemic risks of their services in advance. For the European Commission, the key question is whether X had effective safeguards in place before the large-scale launch of Grok and whether it monitored the consequences of using generative AI for the safety of users in the EU.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how the European Commission launched a new antitrust investigation against Google. The regulator is checking whether the company is violating competition by using content from European media and YouTube creators to train its AI services without fair payment and the right to refuse such use.
