MADRID (Kashmir English): The Spanish government has started investigating social media platforms X, TikTok, and Meta for allegedly spreading AI-generated child sexual abuse material.
The announcement to this effect came from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Tuesday.
The government ordered prosecutors to probe the social media platforms at a time when European regulators are cracking down on big tech companies, alleging the prevalence of abusive practices on online platforms ranging from anti-competitive behaviour in digital advertising to deliberate design of addictive features on social media.
The three companies named by the PM did not immediately respond to the development.
“State cannot allow child sexual abuse”
“These platforms are undermining the mental health, dignity, and rights of our children,” Sanchez wrote on his X account. “The state cannot allow this. The impunity of these giants must end.”
He said the government would ask prosecutors to “investigate the crimes that X, Meta, and TikTok may be committing through the creation and dissemination of child pornography using their AI”.
Spain is not the first country probing sexually explicit content generated by Elon Musk’s xAI chatbot Grok on X. Other nations have also launched investigations, bans and demands for safeguards in a growing global push to curb illegal material.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced several measures aimed at curbing online abuse and protecting children, also proposing ban on access to social media platforms for those under the age of 16.
In November, the PM said that the country’s parliament would investigate Meta for possible privacy violations of its Facebook and Instagram users.
Meanwhile, Data Protection Commission in Ireland Tuesday said it had opened a formal investigation into Grok over the processing of personal data and its potential to produce harmful sexualised images and video, including of children.
