\n\u201cIn Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,\u201d says European Commission chief
\nThe European Union on Monday hit Elon Musk\u2019s X with an investigation over AI chatbot Grok\u2019s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, in the latest step of an international backlash against the tool.
\nGrok faces an outcry after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as \u201cput her in a bikini\u201d or \u201cremove her clothes\u201d.\t\u201cIn Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,\u201d said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
\n\u201cIt is simple \u2014 we will not hand over consent and child protection to tech companies to violate and monetise. The harm caused by illegal images is very real,\u201d she said in a statement to AFP.
\nEU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen said the probe would \u201cdetermine whether X has met its legal obligations\u201d under the bloc\u2019s Digital Services Act (DSA), which is designed to police internet giants.
\nBrussels said it was investigating whether X had properly mitigated \u201crisks related to the dissemination of illegal content in the EU, such as manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material\u201d.
\nThree million images
\nAccording to research published on Thursday by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit watchdog, Grok generated an estimated three million sexualised images of women and children in a matter of days.
\nAs part of the new probe, the EU said it was widening an existing investigation into X aimed at tackling the spread of illegal content and information manipulation.
\nMusk\u2019s social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, has been the target of an investigation since December 2023 under the EU\u2019s digital content rules.
\nBrussels slapped a $140-million fine on X in December for violating the transparency obligations of the DSA, triggering angry reactions from US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.
\nThe breaches included the deceptive design of its \u201cblue checkmark\u201d for supposedly verified accounts and failure to provide access to public data for researchers.
\nThe EU has insisted it will enforce its rules despite pressure from Washington.
\nThe dispute over tech regulation comes as the bloc has grappled with the Trump administration on multiple other fronts \u2014 from the Ukraine war to trade to Greenland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cIn Europe, we will not tolerate unthinkable behaviour, such as digital undressing of women and children,\u201d says European Commission chief The European Union on Monday hit Elon Musk\u2019s X with an investigation over AI chatbot Grok\u2019s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, in the latest step of an international backlash against the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-527894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n