“Enough is enough”. On Monday 19 January, 54 MEPs from the EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left co-signed a letter addressed to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, asking her to take concrete action to address the dangers that the social network X represents for European citizens.
Outraged by the recent scandal involving the social network’s artificial intelligence, Grok, which generated sexualised images of women - sometimes underage and often without their consent (see EUROPE 13782/7) - the signatories are calling for the introduction of an alternative to X.
“This is unthinkable behaviour, and it is unthinkable that we do not respond”, say the elected representatives. In their view, X today “is no longer an open and balanced tool”, but “now resembles a ‘deepfake’ pornography website, and a one-way broadcast system for [Elon] Musk himself”.
The fifty or so elected representatives are asking the Commission to “build European social media now” and to “allow the development of alternative platforms”. It is a question of safeguarding European democracy, the health of its public debate and the national security of the Member States, they insist.
On Tuesday 20 January, the European Parliament is due to debate the fight against AI-generated deepfakes and their use for exploitation and sexual harassment.
This issue was added to the agenda after the worldwide controversy surrounding Grok (see EUROPE 13787/7).
See the letter: https://aeur.eu/f/kaz (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)