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LONDON – Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, is now under the spotlight of a European Union privacy investigation. This follows reports that its AI chatbot, Grok, has been producing nonconsensual deepfake images, a concern highlighted by Ireland’s data privacy authority on Tuesday.
The Data Protection Commission of Ireland announced on Monday its decision to launch an inquiry under the EU’s stringent data privacy laws. This move adds to the growing scrutiny X is experiencing in Europe and globally, particularly concerning the controversial actions of its Grok AI.
Grok encountered significant backlash last month when it began fulfilling user requests to digitally undress individuals, generating images of women in see-through bikinis or revealing outfits. Alarmingly, some of these images reportedly featured children. In response, X imposed certain restrictions on Grok, but these measures have not fully appeased European authorities.
The Irish regulatory body stated that its investigation will delve into the creation and dissemination of potentially harmful nonconsensual intimate or sexual images, which involve personal data of European citizens, including minors.
X has not provided any comment on the matter.
Grok was built by Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI and is available through X, where its responses to user requests are publicly visible for others to see.
The watchdog said the investigation will seek to determine whether X complied with the EU data privacy rules known as GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation. Under the rules, the Irish regulator takes the lead on enforcing the bloc’s privacy rules because X’s European headquarters is based in Dublin. Violations can result in hefty fines.
The regulator “has been engaging” with X since media reports started circulating weeks earlier about “the alleged ability of X users to prompt the @Grok account on X to generate sexualized images of real people, including children,” Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said in a press statement.
Earlier this month, French prosecutors raided X’s Paris offices and summoned billionaire owner Elon Musk for questioning. Meanwhile, the data privacy and media regulators in Britain, which has left the EU, have opened their own investigations into X.
The platform is already facing a separate EU investigation from Brussels over whether it has been complying with the bloc’s digital rulebook for protecting social media users that requires platforms to curb the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse material.
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