EU calls on social media apps to stop Grok illegal content

(MENAFN) The European Commission has called on social media platforms to implement safeguards against the creation of illegal content, following concerns that the chatbot Grok—part of Elon Musk’s US-based X platform—was being misused to produce non-consensual sexualized AI deepfake images of women and minors.

During a midday press briefing in Brussels, EU Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier emphasized that the bloc is focusing on how platforms operate rather than targeting individual posts.

"Paid subscription or non-paid subscription, we don't want to see such images. It's as simple as that," he said, referring to recent adjustments by X that now restrict Grok’s image generation and editing functions to paying users.

Regnier clarified that the Commission does not instruct platforms to remove specific content. Instead, it oversees platform design to ensure that systems prevent the creation of illegal material, including non-consensual sexual imagery of women and content involving children.

"When content is illegal, it's for users to flag it to the platform, and then the platform has the obligation to remove content ... We never ask a platform to remove a specific content. What we're asking platforms to do is to make sure that their design, that their systems do not allow the generation of such illegal content," he explained.

He added, "We don't want users in the EU to have the possibility to generate illegal content, to take nonconsensual images of women and to create sexual images out of it, or of children."

Earlier, on January 4, X issued guidance warning users not to employ Grok for generating illegal content, including material involving child sexual abuse. Musk also noted that anyone prompting the AI to produce illegal content would "suffer the same consequences" as if they had uploaded it themselves.

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