The issue at hand involves the dangers associated with spreading illegal content online, particularly manipulated sexually explicit images, which may include material classified as child sexual abuse.

The European Commission has expressed concern, stating that such risks have “materialized,” thereby exposing EU citizens to significant harm.

Henna Virkkunen, the Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy, commented, “Sexual deepfakes involving women and children are a violent and intolerable form of degradation.”

She further elaborated, “This investigation aims to establish if X has adhered to its legal responsibilities under the Digital Services Act (DSA) or if it has disregarded the rights of European citizens, including women and children, as a byproduct of its operations.”

The eSafety Commissioner voiced ongoing concerns about the generative AI system Grok on X, which might be used to create content that sexualizes or exploits individuals, especially minors.

Although the number of reports to eSafety remains low, there has been a noticeable increase recently, with reports escalating from nearly none to several cases in recent weeks, specifically regarding Grok’s use in generating sexualized or exploitative images.

“eSafety will use its powers, including removal notices, where appropriate and where material meets the relevant thresholds defined in the Online Safety Act.”

The commission said it had already taken enforcement action in 2025 over some “nudify” services used to create AI child sexual exploitation material.

The eSafety Commission has not confirmed whether it has received a response from X. 

About a week later, X owner Musk said he was aware of “literally zero” naked underage images generated by Grok.

“Obviously, Grok does not spontaneously generate images, it does so only according to user requests,” he said, in a post on X.

“When asked to generate images, it will refuse to produce anything illegal, as the operating principle for Grok is to obey the laws of any given country or state.

“There may be times when adversarial hacking of Grok prompts does something unexpected. If that happens, we fix the bug immediately.”

It also said it would stop allowing users to depict people in “bikinis, underwear or other revealing attire” but only in places where it’s illegal.

Tech website The Verge has since found it remains “extremely easy to undress women and edit them into sexualised poses using the X and Grok mobile apps or websites”.

The European Commission said its investigation could include sending more requests for information to X, conducting interviews or inspections and imposing interim measures.