Why are Grok and X still available in app stores?

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence Your puppy chatbot is They are used To flood X with Thousands Sexual images of adults and minors wearing minimal clothing. Some of this content appears to violate more than just X content Policieswhich prohibits sharing illegal content such as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), but may also violate the Apple App Store and Google Play Store guidelines.

Both Apple and Google explicitly prohibit apps that contain CSAM material, which is illegal to host and distribute in many countries. Tech giants also ban apps that contain pornography or facilitate harassment. Apple App Store He says It does not allow “explicit sexual or pornographic material,” as well as “defamatory, discriminatory or profane content,” especially if the app is “likely to insult, intimidate, or harm a target individual or group.” Google Play Store Ban Apps that “contain or promote content related to sexually predatory behavior, or distribute sexual content without consent,” as well as software that “contains or facilitates threats, harassment, or bullying.”

Over the past two years, Apple and Google have removed a number of “nudify” photo-creation and AI apps after Investigations By BBC and 404 Media found They were announced Or they are used to effectively transform ordinary images into explicit images of women without their consent.

But at the time of publication, both X and Grok is a standalone app It remains available on both app stores. Apple, Google and X did not respond to requests for comment. Grok is run by Musk’s multi-billion-dollar AI startup, which also did not respond to WIRED’s questions. In a General statement Posted on January 3, X said it was taking action against illegal content on its platform, including CSAM. “Anyone who uses Grok or causes them to create illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content,” the company warned.

Sloan Thompson, director of training and education at EndTAB, a group that teaches organizations how to prevent the spread of non-consensual sexual content, says it is “entirely appropriate” for companies like Apple and Google to take action against X and Grok.

The amount of explicit, non-consensual images on X created by Grok has exploded over the past couple of weeks. one researcher Grok told Bloomberg that over a 24-hour period between January 5 and 6, Grok was producing approximately 6,700 images per hour that were determined to be “sexually suggestive or nudity.” Another analyst collected more than 15,000 image URLs created by Grok on X during a two-hour period on December 31. It has been reviewed About a third of the photos were found, and many of them showed women wearing revealing clothing. More than 2,500 of them were marked as no longer available within a week, while nearly 500 were labeled as “age-restricted adult content.”

Earlier this week, a spokesman for the European Commission, the European Union’s governing body, said: Publicly condemned Explicit and non-consensual sexual images created by Grok on

On Thursday, the E.U I ordered X To retain all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026, and to expand the scope of the Advance Retention Directive, to ensure that authorities can access material relevant to compliance with the EU Digital Services Act, although a new formal investigation has not yet been announced. Regulators in Other countriesincluding the United Kingdom, India and Malaysia They are Investigation into the social media platform.