Deepfakes from Grok: Irish data protection authority initiates a case against X
The data protection authority DPC Ireland has initiated proceedings against the European X subsidiary. Reason: the sexualized images from the in-house AI Grok.
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Elon Musk's platform X is facing another fine in the European Union. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), responsible for X, initiated proceedings against X Unlimited International Corporation (XIUC) in Dublin on Monday. The background involves sexualized or otherwise manipulated images of various individuals created with Grok, which users had published on X without the consent of the affected parties.
Since the first media reports about the incidents, the DPC has been in contact with X, explained the deputy head of the supervisory authority, Graham Doyle: "As the lead supervisory authority for XIUC in the EU and EEA, the DPC has begun a large-scale investigation in which we will examine XIUC's compliance with some of its fundamental obligations under the GDPR in relation to these events."
DPC examines GDPR violations
The Irish DPC, long considered a rather harmless supervisory authority, is investigating possible violations of Articles 5 and 6 of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to its own statements. These articles contain the basic rules for data processing and provisions for the permissibility of data processing. Furthermore, the authority is examining possible violations of Articles 25 and 35 concerning data protection "by design" and data protection impact assessment.
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The DPC is responsible for the compliance of companies based in Ireland with the GDPR. The authority can therefore initiate proceedings and also impose fines if it is convinced that a company has violated the GDPR. The Irish data protection authority did not comment on the possible duration of such proceedings. This is the third proceeding in the Grok context that the DPC has initiated.
After the allegations became known at the beginning of the year, several politicians had spoken out in favor of a tougher crackdown on Musk's AI and the associated platform. The EU Commission, as the supervisory authority for the Digital Services Act (DSA), initiated an investigation at the end of January.
(akn)
