European Union regulators on Monday announced an investigation of Elon Musk’s social media platform X after the authorities said that it had failed to stop the spread of sexualised images generated by artificial intelligence.

The inquiry is likely to escalate a confrontation between Europe and the US over the regulation of online content. Musk and his allies in the Trump administration have sharply criticised European Union Internet regulations as an attack on free speech and American companies.

The European authorities said that X was being investigated for possible violation of the Digital Services Act, alleging that the company had not properly addressed the “systemic risks” of integrating the AI chatbot Grok into its service. Starting in late December, sexually explicit images generated by Grok, including of children, flooded the service, drawing worldwide criticism from victims and regulators.

Musk was facing mounting scrutiny in Europe even before this latest Grok controversy. Last month, X was fined about $140 million for violating Digital Services Act rules around deceptive design, advertising transparency and data sharing with outside researchers.

The European authorities have another investigation underway about X’s recommender algorithm and policies for preventing the spread of illicit content.

“Nonconsensual sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation,” Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission executive vice-president who oversees enforcement of the Digital Service Act, said in a statement. “We will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens — including those of women and children — as collateral damage of its service.”

The European Commission, the executive body for the 27-nation European Union, did not give a timeline for the investigation, but said that it had the authority to order X to make changes during the inquiry in the “absence of meaningful adjustments” to the service.

A spokesperson for X referred to a previous statement the company had made about Grok. “We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, nonconsensual nudity and unwanted sexual content,” the statement said.

New York Times News Service