The European Commission has ordered Elon Musk-owned social network X to retain all documentation related to its AI chatbot Grok for longer while the Union checks compliance with its rules after condemning the platform for producing sexualized images, an EC spokesman said.
Sweden joined a wave of criticism today, saying AI-generated images were unacceptable, after the country's deputy prime minister was the target of a question from a Grok user this week, Reuters reports.
The commission decided to extend a document preservation order issued to Network X last year, which relates to algorithms and the dissemination of illegal content, and to extend it until the end of 2026, spokesman Tom Renier told reporters.
"The message to these platforms is: keep your internal documents, don't remove them, because we have doubts about your compliance with the regulations... and we must be able to access them if we explicitly request it," said Renier.
Kristerson: The images are unacceptable
Renier said the move did not mean the Commission had launched a new formal investigation under the EU's Digital Services Act, which requires online platforms to take stronger measures against illegal and harmful content.
Network X did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
X's security team announced on Sunday that the platform is removing all illegal content, including child sexual abuse material, and permanently suspending accounts involved. It added that anyone who uses or encourages Grok to produce illegal content will face the same consequences as if they had posted such content themselves.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson described the images as "a form of sexualised violence" and said: "It is repulsive, unacceptable and offensive."
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has again called on Network X to take urgent action, after a report by the Internet Watch Foundation found that Grok was being used to generate sexualised images of children.
"It's disgusting. And it will not be tolerated," Starmer told national radio network Greatest Hits Radio.
The Internet Watch Foundation, a British non-governmental organization dedicated to eradicating online child sexual abuse, said it had found criminal images of children aged between 11 and 13, which appear to have been created using Grok.
"Tools like Grok now risk bringing sexualized AI images of children into the mainstream," Nger Alexander, the Foundation's whistleblower hotline manager, said in a statement. "This is unacceptable."
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