Grok and X should be suspended from Apple, Google app stores, Democratic senators say

Three Democratic senators are calling on Apple and Google to suspend the X and Grok apps from their stores, at least until owner Elon Musk disallows them from letting users create and share nonconsensual, explicit images and depictions of child sexual abuse.

In an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Friday, Sens. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico said the tech giants should, “immediately remove the X and Grok apps from their app stores until the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Elon Musk, addresses these disturbing and likely illegal activities.”

“Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices,” they wrote, adding that a failure to take action would “undermine your claims in public and in court that your app stores offer a safer user experience than letting users download apps directly to their phones.”

Musk’s xAI, the developer of Grok and parent of social media platform X, responded to CNBC’s request for comment with an automated reply. Google and Apple didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Grok and X have been letting users easily generate and widely share “deepfake” explicit, sexualized content that includes people who never gave permission for their images to be used in such manner. Grok has also been used to generate images that denigrate people on the basis of their race or ethnicity.

In one recent example, as The Times of London reported, “A descendant of Holocaust survivors was ‘digitally stripped'” by Grok after users prompted the AI tool to generate an image of her in a bikini standing outside of Auschwitz.

The issues have sparked widespread criticism and regulatory probes by foreign governments in Europe, Malaysia, Australia and India. However, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice have yet to say whether they will investigate xAI.

On Jan. 3, Musk and X issued statements saying that “anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”

Apple and Google both have stringent guidelines for app developers that would require them to prevent the uploading and sharing of images depicting child sexual abuse, and other explicit or harmful content.

Social media and messaging apps including Tumblr and Telegram have been previously suspended by the Apple app store for failures to filter a variety of inappropriate content.

On Friday, X reportedly made Grok AI image generation features available for use by paying subscribers only. However, Grok’s standalone app and website still allowed users to prompt Grok to digitally undress, sexualize or degrade people without first obtaining consent to use their photos or clips.

CNN reported that Grok’s recent feature updates, and relative lack of safeguards, were demanded by Musk. Three xAI staffers who worked on the company’s safety team announced on X that they were leaving after Musk made the demands, the report said.

In the midst of the backlash, xAI said this week that it raised a $20 billion funding round from investors including Nvidia and Cisco Investments, as well as long-time Musk company backers Valor Equity Partners, Stepstone Group, Fidelity, Qatar Investment Authority, Abu Dhabi’s MGX and Baron Capital Group.

WATCH: XAI closes $20 billion funding round