Commission meeting with X in wake of Grok AI antisemitism scandal
Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier, confirmed to Euractiv that a "technical" meeting will take place between its officials and representatives of X over Grok.
The meeting comes after the chatbot reportedly spread antisemitic and hateful prompts on X, including posts that appeared to celebrate Hitler. X has since taken down abusive content generated by the AI chatbot and, in a post on X on Saturday, Grok's developers tried to frame the episode as an "abuse" of the AI's functionality, rather than a design flaw.
Despite Grok being caught spewing hate speech, the Commission has not clarified whether today's technical meeting will specifically address this topic. "As with any other designated platform, this is a usual step in the Commission's supervisory work," Regnier said.
Since the Grok hate speech incident, the Polish Deputy Prime Minister has sent a letter to Tech Commissioner, Virkkunen, urging the EU to investigate Grok's outburst under the Digital Services Act (DSA). "What we are seeing from X right now could be considered a major infringement of the DSA," he wrote.
In the same week, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an official investigation into X and its owner, Elon Musk, alleging algorithmic manipulation and fraudulent data extraction as part of organised crime, among other suspicions.
X has been under investigation by the Commission since December 2023, over a raft of suspected DSA breaches. In July 2024 the EU confirmed some violations. However – so far – X has not been issued with any DSA fines.
"France is stepping in where Europe should [be]," said Renew lawmaker Sandro Gozi, in response to news of the Paris investigation.
"It's been almost 600 days since the European Commission launched its own probe into X. And still, nothing," he added.
The Commission has said that its services are consistently "in touch with X" – a point Virkkunen reiterated during a press conference on Monday.
X was contacted about today's technical meeting with the EU but the company offered no standalone comment – merely pointing back to its existing X post about the Grok episode.
(nl)
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euractiv
2 hours ago
- Euractiv
EU's privacy supervisor clears Commission's use of Microsoft
European institutions' privacy supervisor closed its enforcement action on the Commission's use of Microsoft on Monday, following updates to the Commission's privacy practices. The development – which clears the Commission's use of Microsoft's digital products – follows exchanges between the EU's executive and the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). In March 2024, the EDPS found that the EU's executive had breached data protection rules for EU institutions over its use of Microsoft products such as Office 365. The EDPS' 2024 decision determined that the Commission's contract with Microsoft for cloud collaborative tools insufficiently protected personal data from transfers outside the European Economic Area (EEA). It also provided recommendations for bolstering protections. The Commission has since updated its contract with Microsoft in line with the EDPS' recommendations. Under the new approach, Microsoft must now specify the purpose for which data may be transferred outside the EEA, along with stipulating any recipients. The updated contract also requires it to list countries to which data may be sent, limiting it to places where the EU recognises an equivalent level of privacy protections or where public interest makes a transfer necessary. New provisions in the contract further mandate that Microsoft discloses to the Commission when it is asked by another country to comply with data access requests, unless the request is from the EU or a country with equivalent data protections. In a statement about closing the enforcement, EDPS Wojciech Wiewiórowski also called on other EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies that use or are considering adopting Microsoft 365 services to carry out "similar assessments and to implement technical and organisational measures comparable to those adopted by the Commission". Microsoft welcomed the EDPS' move, a spokesperson told Euractiv . Digital sovereignty and adequacy In parallel with the EDPS' green light to continue buying Microsoft, the Commission remains worried about its heavy dependence on the non-European company for digital platforms and products that are needed to ensure the EU's administration can function day-to-day. The bloc's executive has also continued to recognise the US as having equivalent privacy protections as the EU's, under the high level adequacy deal agreed two years ago. However, since then, US President Donald Trump's decision to switch Democrats for Republicans in key positions within US privacy oversight bodies has raised concerns over their independence – and, therefore, over the validity of the EU-US adequacy decision. (nl)
Euractiv
2 hours ago
- Euractiv
EU-US deal avoided ‘potentially devastating' consequences, Italian Prime Minister Meloni says
She added, however, that she still had to 'study the details' of the deal AFP Jul 28, 2025 12:30 1 min. read News Service Produced externally by an organization we trust to adhere to journalistic standards. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni welcomed an EU-US trade deal on Monday, saying it had avoided "potentially devastating" consequences. Meloni – an ally of US President Donald Trump on many issues – had earlier this month warned against a "trade war within the West". Speaking at a summit in Ethiopia, Meloni said a "trade escalation between Europe and the United States would have had unpredictable and potentially devastating consequences". She added, however, that she still had to "study the details" of the deal. She spoke hours after Trump and the EU's Ursula von der Leyen struck the deal – that will see EU exports taxed at 15 percent – in Scotland. Meloni stressed she views the fact that a deal was struck at all "positively." The right-wing Italian leader said Rome will look into whether exemptions could be possible, "particularly on some agricultural products". (vib)
Euractiv
2 hours ago
- Euractiv
France's Prime Minister Bayrou slams EU-US trade deal as ‘submission'
French Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday criticised the newly agreed trade deal between the European Union and the United States, calling it a 'dark day' for Europe and accusing the bloc of bowing to American pressure. 'It's a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, united in their values and in the defence of their interests, resigns itself to submission,' Bayrou said on social media platform X, referring to the deal that sets a 15% tariff on US imports of European goods. The unusually blunt language highlighted growing discomfort in Paris over what many see as an imbalanced agreement, struck to avert a full-blown transatlantic trade war. Several French ministers echoed widespread frustration with the deal, including European Affairs Minister Benjamin Haddad who earlier on Monday said it was "urgent" for the EU to prepare to activate its "bazooka" anti-coercion instrument – the bloc's most powerful trade weapon that could limit the American service industries access' to the EU's markets. Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin also weighed in on France Inter radio on Monday stressing that France 'reserves the right to respond' if trade asymmetries persist. The French President Emmanuel Macron, who advocated for a tougher stance ahead of the negotiations, has notably remained silent so far. The EU-US deal, finalised on Sunday, will see the EU face a 'straight-across tariff of 15%' on 'automobiles and everything else', the US president said. Criticism has been swift and vocal among Macron's opponents from the far right, with its leader Marine Le Pen denouncing a "a clear-cut surrender for French industry, and for our energy and military sovereignty'. Several far-left MPs also called the agreement 'a disgrace,' with their leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon adding that 'everything has been ceded to Trump'. France is heavily dependent on the US market, with total trade in goods running to around €86 billion last year, according to US government data. The French ministers for economy and foreign affairs announced a meeting with France's most prominent employer federations and lobby groups for Wednesday to discuss the consequences of the EU-US trade deal for industries "impacted by American customs duties", the economy ministry said in a press release. Maximilian Henning contributed reporting. Hungary's Orbán mocks 'featherweight' von der Leyen over EU-US trade deal 'It wasn't a deal that President Donald Trump made with Ursula von der Leyen – it was Trump eating von der Leyen for breakfast." (vib) UPDATE: This article has been updated.
