Europe Union opens probe into Elon Musk’s Grok; says ‘will assess whether the company …’

Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) is facing a new investigation in Europe. According to a report by CNBC, the European Commission is probing the AI chatbot Grok – directly integrated in X under the European Union’s sweeping Digital Services Act (DSA) regulation. “The new investigation will assess whether the company properly assessed and mitigated risks associated with the deployment of Grok’s functionalities into X in the EU,” the Commission said in a statement. With the probe, Europe has joined a list of countries looking into Grok that includes the UK, India, and Malaysia.

“This includes risks 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.”

As per the report, the Commission said the risks “seem to have materialised, exposing citizens in the EU to serious harm.”

Why EU is probing X and Grok

Earlier this month, X and especially Grok faced backlash for creating explicit, sexualised “deepfake” content with people’s consent, particularly women and children. After the backlash, Elon Musk shared an online post stating: “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.

X also responded to the incident writing in an X post:

“We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.

X is facing increased scrutiny from the European Commission under the Digital Services Act (DSA), a law that allows regulators to impose heavy fines on tech companies. The DSA aims to control how online platforms manage content and interact with users.