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.