A group of U.S. senators has asked Apple (AAPL) and Alphabet’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google to remove the Elon Musk-owned X and Grok apps from their app stores, citing the generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children on the platforms.
Senators Ron Wyden, Edward Markey, and Ben Lujan wrote a letter addressing Apple’s CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai and requested to remove the apps from the app stores until X’s alleged policy violations are addressed.
“We write to ask that you enforce your app stores’ terms of service against X Corp’s (hereafter, “X”) X and Grok apps for their mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children. X’s generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores’ distribution terms. Apple and Google must remove these apps from the app stores until X’s policy violations are addressed,” said the letter.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Musk’s AI start up xAI (X.AI) said “Legacy Media Lies,” in an email to Seeking Alpha.
Earlier on Friday, xAI said it has restricted the use of AI service Grok’s image generation features to paying subscribers following a growing outcry over its use for sexualized deepfakes of women and children.
On Jan. 3, Musk posted on X that, “anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
“Your app stores’ policies are clear. Google’s terms of service require apps to “prohibit usersfrom creating, uploading, or distributing content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse ofchildren” including prohibiting the “portrayal of children in a manner that could result in thesexual exploitation of children,” said the senators in the letter.
The senators have requested a written response to the letter from Apple and Google by Jan. 23.
“Given the severity of the harm, at the very least, temporary removal pending a full investigation of the claims is appropriate,” said the senators in the letter.