The government of Spain has ordered prosecutors to probe social media giants X, Meta Platforms (META) and TikTok for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material, according to the country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
“Today, the Council of Ministers will invoke Article 8 of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecution Service to request that it investigate the crimes that X, Meta, and TikTok may be committing through the creation and dissemination of child pornography by means of their AI,” said Sanchez in a post on X, according to a translated version.
“These platforms are attacking the mental health, dignity and rights of our sons and daughters,” Sanchez added. “The State cannot allow it. The impunity of the giants must end.”
Meta, TikTok parent ByteDance (BDNCE), and X owner xAI (X.AI) did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
The announcement comes as European regulators are cracking down on tech companies, alleging abusive practices on online platforms.
xAI’s chatbot Grok and X have recently come under scrutiny following the alleged generation of deepfake images by the AI service. On Tuesday, it was reported that Ireland’s data protection regulator opened an inquiry into X amid concerns about sexualized images generated and shared through the Grok AI chatbot.
Earlier this month, Sanchez announced some measures aimed at restricting online abuse and protecting children, including a proposed ban on access to social media platforms for those under the age of 16, Reuters reported.