Dems pressure Google, Apple to drop X app as international regulators turn up heat

“There can be no mistake about X’s knowledge, and, at best, negligent response to these trends,” the lawmakers wrote to company executives.

A trio of Senate Democrats are calling on Apple and Google to drop Elon Musk’s X from app stores as international regulators in Europe and Britain took steps towards investigations of the site’s mass undressing of users using Grok’s AI tool.

On Friday, Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Ed Markey, D-Mass., wrote to Apple’s and Google’s chief executives, asking them to “enforce your apps stores’ terms of service against X.”

“X’s generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores’ distribution terms,” they wrote.

The Senators quote from Google Play Store’s terms of service stating that apps must “prohibit users from creating, uploading, or distributing content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children” and subject them to immediate removal for violations. Apple’s terms allow wide flexibility to take action on apps or content that are “offensive” or “just plain creepy,” something they argued should clearly cover what is happening on X.

“There can be no mistake about X’s knowledge, and, at best, negligent response to these trends,” the lawmakers wrote. 

The lawmakers explicitly compared the lack of action or comments from both companies thus far to the way the stores treated apps meant to track Immigrations and Customs Enforcement operations around the country, such as ICEBlock and Red Dot. 

“Unlike Grok’s sickening content generation, these apps were not creating or hosting harmful or illegal content, and yet, based entirely on the Administration’s claims that they posed a risk to immigration enforcers, you removed them from your stores,” the Senators noted.

The call comes as international regulators have turned up the heat on X over the scandal, while conflicting reports swirl about the extent to which X has limited Grok’s deepfake functionality after weeks of criticism.

The UK’s Office of Communications, the nation’s top communications regulatory agency, said it had made “urgent” contact with X over the images being generated by users through Grok, and that based on their response, “we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues” under the UK Online Safety Act. Friday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the images “unlawful” and “disgusting” and promised that all options, including a potential ban of X, were being considered.

Meanwhile, the European Union has ordered X to preserve all documents related to Grok through 2026, an indication that it could be subject to regulatory or law enforcement investigations, according to Reuters.

As CyberScoop and others have reported, legal experts have said that Musk may be exposing X to broad legal and regulatory risks from states, federal regulators and law enforcement.

There have been conflicting reports that X, which has not responded to inquiries from journalists under Musk’s ownership, may be taking steps to limit Grok’s deepfake functionality for some of its users.

On Friday, Musk posted on X that he was limiting the feature to paid users, which has resulted in a fresh round of outrage from observers who pointed out that monetizing illegal sexual deepfakes was not a solution to the problem. Prior to that statement, the only public response from Musk addressing the scandal was a post he made with “cry-laughing” emojis in response to a Grok-generated deepfake of himself wearing a bikini.

Musk doesn’t release numbers around paid subscribers, but a TechCrunch analysis indicates that it could be as high as 1.3-3.7 million users based on revenues reported from in-app purchases.

But even the claim that non-paying users are shut out from making further sexualized deepfakes through Grok may be inaccurate, as users on social media reported that even after the change, they were able to access Grok’s deepfake feature as a free user through X or Grok’s website.

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