EU investigation into Grok may expose problems with DSA rather than compliance failings

By Neil Hodge for Compliance Week
Wednesday, February 4, 2026

• 310
• More

The European Commission has launched a formal investigation against Elon Musk’s X under the Digital Services Act (DSA) over fears that its AI tool Grok may be producing and disseminating illegal material, particularly regarding manipulated sexualised images of children and pictures that may even amount to child abuse.

On Jan. 26, the Commission also extended its ongoing two-year investigation against the tech firm over concerns that its recommender systems fail to comply with risk management, obligations under the legislation, and allow dangerous and illegal material to circulate unchecked.

Ilia Kolochenko, CEO at ImmuniWeb and a cybersecurity law attorney, said in a statement “The patience of regulators is not infinite: similar investigations are already pending even in California, let alone the EU. Moreover, some countries have already temporarily restricted or threatened to restrict access to X’s AI chatbot and more bans are probably coming very soon. Therefore, the decision of the UK’s ICO has been long-awaited.”

“While the freedom of speech and expression are the core values of modern-day democracy, they are not unlimited, unconditional or absolute. Of note, existing laws and regulations in many countries allow victims of deepfakes to take legal actions against X or even file criminal complaints under certain circumstances. Therefore, the current probes by regulators are just the tip of the iceberg and have little in common with the growing dilemma of overregulation in Europe.” Read Full Article