The EU opened a large-scale investigation into social network X

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), the agency primarily responsible for enforcing the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), on February 17 announced the opening of a “large-scale” investigation into last month.

The DPC will consider whether X complies with key EU data privacy regulations when processing the personal data of citizens in the bloc. “DPC has been working with X since media reports emerged a few weeks ago relating to allegations that users were able to issue commands to the @Grok account on

xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup and currently a subsidiary of SpaceX, launched the photo and video creation feature from the Grok Imagine command and “Spicy Mode” in August 2025. According to Mashablecompared to many other platforms with strict controls, this AI is “easier” and “less restrained” in creating pornographic images, while X is the place to spread them without censorship.

On January 9, xAI announced that only paid users can use the photo editing feature of real people. On January 14, the company announced that it would disable the feature, applying to all users, including paid users. xAI is also committed to making X a safe platform with zero tolerance for all forms of child sexual abuse, non-consensual nudity and unwanted sexual content.

The US Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) on January 22 published research showing that Grok produced up to three million pornographic images from December 29, 2025 to January 8, 2026. In 11 days, it is estimated that Grok created about 23,000 sensitive photos of children, an average of one new photo every 41 seconds.

Sensitive content once caused Grok to be blocked from access by some countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Meanwhile, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology expressed its opposition through a letter sent to the director in charge of X’s operations in the country.

In early February, the British Information Commissioner’s Office announced the opening of an official investigation into X and xAI, including the handling of personal data related to Grok and the ability to create sexually harmful content. On February 3, X’s office in Paris was searched by the police following an extensive investigation into the company and Grok and Musk were also summoned for questioning.