Under the Digital Services Act (DSA), the European Commission (EC) has officially launched a formal investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X to examine whether the company properly evaluated and mitigated risks tied to its AI tool Grok.
As part of the investigation, regulators will examine whether X conducted and submitted an ad hoc risk assessment report before rolling out Grok features with a critical impact on the platform’s risk profile.
Extending an existing probe into X’s recommender systems, the EC’s latest proceedings follow concerns over the spread of illegal and harmful content in the European Union (EU), such as manipulated sexually explicit images and material that may amount to child sexual abuse.
The watchdog stated these risks “seem to have materialised, exposing citizens in the EU to serious harm”. The EC will also assess whether the company addressed systemic risks tied to illegal content, gender-based violence, and serious negative consequences for users’ physical and mental well-being associated with Grok’s functionalities.
Henna Virkkunen, EVP for tech sovereignty, security and democracy at the EC, said sexual deepfakes of women and children are a “violent, unacceptable form of degradation”, adding the probe will determine whether X has met its legal obligations or treated the rights of European citizens as “collateral damage of its service”.
The regulator explained it will gather further evidence through requests for information, interviews and potential inspections, and impose interim measures if meaningful changes are not made.
Earlier this month, UK regulator Ofcom also opened a formal investigation into X over the spread of sexualised images generated by Grok.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: X
