The European Commission launched a formal investigation into Elon
Musk's X platform today over the Grok AI chatbot's ability to
generate sexually explicit deepfake images of women and
children. Now, the probe comes after Grok
users created roughly 3,000,000 sexualized images in just 11
days, according to research from the Center for Countering
Digital Heat, with an estimated 23 thousand of those images
appearing to depict minors. Now, if X is found to have
violated the Digital Services Act, the company could face
fines reaching 6% of its total global revenue.
Now, what safeguards did X failed to implement before
rolling out a tool that produced 190 explicit images per minute?
The investigation will examine whether X properly assessed and
mitigated risks before deploying Grok in the EU, and whether the
platform's response to the crisis came too late.
We'll cover the specific allegations against X, the
regulatory firestorm now spreading across multiple
continents and the statement from the E us henna Vicanin but
calling those deep fakes the violent form of degradation and
we'll get right back into that after this short break.
Now the European Commission announced Monday that it is
opening a wide reaching investigation of the X under the
digital services act, the block sweeping rule book for keeping
Internet users safe from harmful content.
And the pro focus is on whether X conducted proper risk
assessments before adding Grok's image generation capabilities to
its platform, and whether the company took adequate steps to
prevent illegal content from spreading across the EU.
Now the scandal erupted in late December 2025 when XAI rolled
out a one click image editing feature for Grok that allowed
users to alter photos with a single prompt.
Within days, users discovered they could digitally undress
real people, including celebrities, politicians and
ordinary social media users, by uploading the photos and
requesting Grok to generate explicit versions.
Bloomberg research found that X users utilizing Grok posted more
non consensual naked or sexual imagery than users of any other
website during this period. The feature XEI marketed as
Spicy Mode became a factory for harassment at scale.
Unlike competing AI image generators from Open AI, Google
Grok appears to have launched without adequate safeguards to
prevent the creation of intimate and nudified images of real
people. Henna Verkinen, the EU's
executive vice president for tech, sovereignty, security and
democracy, issued a blistering statement alongside the
investigation announcement. She got sexual defects of women
and children. A violent and unacceptable form
of degradation is stated directly that the investigation
will determine whether X met its legal obligations under the DSA
or whether it treated the rights of European citizens, including
those of women and children, as collateral damage of its
ServiceNow. The Commission also revealed it
is extending a separate investigation into X's
recommendation systems that began in December 2023,
examining whether X's algorithm is disseminating illegal
content, including sexual child abuse material.
That expansion signals the Grot controversy has exposed deeper
systemic problems with how X moderates contact across its
entire platform. Now X responded to the
investigation by pointing to measures that it implemented in
mid January after the global outcry peaked.
They got caught, so they did that.
And the company said it takes action to remove high priority
volatile and other sexualized content and non consensual
nudity, and that it takes appropriate action against
accounts to violate its rules now.
X also stated it reports accounts seeking Child
Exploitation materials to law enforcement is necessary.
A European Commission official acknowledged these measures
during a briefing, but told journalists the company had not
properly assessed the risks before launching this chatbot.
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the
Commission has quite a few tools at its disposal and that he find
was possible. Now what we are after is
changing the platform's behavior.
They stated. I've been digging into the stats
of the show, 37% of you are following the channel.
I'd love you, thank you. And 6063%, I got my math right
there around that amount. It's actually went up now.
So there's more like 39% people following and 61% of you aren't
following. So we're we're growing people.
This is great, but you just haven't hit the follower
subscribe button if you're not following already.
And I've been doing this for about 6 to 8 years.
Somewhere in that time frame, I actually looked back the other
day, over 1000 episodes of this. I'm going to be doing it for the
next 10 years. All they ask from you is one
second of your time. Hit the follower subscribe
button on whatever platform you're on right now.
I'll be gratefully, gratefully blissed to have you here.
Thank you so much and let's get back into this deep concerning
topic that's going on right now. This investigation from the EU
adds to a mounting pile of regulatory actions against X and
XAI across multiple jurisdictions.
California Attorney General Rob Banta announced an investigation
on January 14th and followed up with a cease and desist letter
demanding XAI immediately halt the creation and distribution of
deep fake images. Bonta cited an analysis showing
that more than half of the 20,000 images generated by XAI
between Christmas and New Year's depicted people in minimal
clothing, with some appearing to be children.
Disgusting. California Department of Justice
gave XAI 5 days to provide confirmation of steps it was
taking to address the issues in a coalition of 35 state
attorneys general also sent a letter demanding XCI take
additional action to prevent Grok from generating non
consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material.
Now, the United Kingdom's media regulatory regulator Ofcom
launched its own formal investigation on January 12th
under the Online Safety Act, and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer
called the Grok generated images disgusting and unlawful, saying
X needed to get a grip on the application.
Ofcom has the power to impose fines of 10% of worldwide
revenue for breaches of its rules, and could potentially
seek a court order forcing Internet service providers to
ban X entirely in Britain. Now, when asked whether X could
be banned, Business Secretary Peter Kyle responded yes, of
course, though he noted that power rests with Ofcom.
Indonesia banned Croc outright on January 10th, and Malaysia
followed suit on January 11th before partially lifting its
restrictions. France, Germany, Australia have
also opened their own investigations into the
platform. Now, the timeline of X's
response reels a company scrambling to contain damage
rather than prevent harm and damage.
When criticism first emerged in early January, Musk mocked the
outcry on his X account, as he usually does.
The company initially responded by limiting explicit image
generation to just paying subscribers and moves Starmer
condemned as an effort, a front to victims and not a solution.
By January 14th, after investigations had launched in
multiple countries, X finally announced it would prevent all
users from using Grok to create images of real people in
revealing clothing. The company also said it would
Geo block the feature in jurisdictions where such content
is illegal. So while all of this was going
on, I wanted to see if X was actually doing this, if they
were stopping and limiting the image generation for all users.
I'm a paying customer of X, so I should not have had asked Grok.
I asked X to generate a picture of of the President of the
United States in a string bikini.
And guess what? 4 seconds later, there you go,
made Donald Trump in a string bikini.
And it was disgusting. And by the way, it was pretty
gross and weird. So I was like, you know what?
Maybe, maybe it was a fluke. Let's try it on Elon.
Tried it on Elon, same thing happened.
That also was not very flattering.
But just to show you that there are ways around this and you
could make sexually explicit images of people without their
consent very easily. Mine were in a bikini.
So not that big of a deal, right?
But it was about another person, which is not the right thing to
do. You're not supposed to make
those images of other people. So even though they did restrict
people from doing it, there's still ways around it.
Now let's get back into the story and see what kind of fines
and legal, regulatory actions are going to be taken.
This financial exposure for X is pretty big.
EU already find the platform $140 million in December over
its deceptive design of the blue verification check mark.
Of course, X has not paid that fine yet, according to EU
officials, though the company still has time to settle it.
ADSA violation in this new investigation could result in
fines up to 6% of global annual revenue.
The UK's Online strategy Air Safety Act carries similar
penalties of up to 10% of worldwide revenue.
Multiple civil lawsuits have also been filed, including one
from Ashley Sinclair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children,
who alleges Grok generated sexualized images depicting her
as a child, in a bikini, as an adult and sexually explicit
poses. Disgusting.
Now the Grok investigation arrives at a tense moment in
transatlantic relations. US Secretary of State Marco
Rubio responded to the December EU find by saying the Block is
attacking American companies, and a State Department official
warned that nothing is off the table when it comes to free
speech. The EU has made clear that its
focus is changing platform behavior rather than simply
collecting fines. The Digital Services Act gives
regulators the power to impose operational requirements, demand
specific changes to product features, leave it suspend
services that repeatedly violate European law.
No other X will face such drastic measures.
Depends on the investigation's findings and the company's
willingness to implement meaningful safeguards.