Spanish authorities have appealed to the prosecutor's office with a demand to initiate a criminal investigation against social platforms X, Meta, and TikTok in connection with the creation and dissemination of sexualized deepfakes using their artificial intelligence tools. This was reported by Euractiv, as conveyed by UNN.
Details
The initiative was announced by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who stated that such platforms harm the mental health, dignity, and rights of children. According to him, the state cannot allow social media algorithms to amplify potential harm to minors.
Most of the regulatory attention so far has been drawn to Elon Musk's X platform and its AI assistant Grok, which since late last year has been actively used to create and disseminate generated images that digitally "undress" women and children. At the same time, the Spanish initiative could be the first investigation to extend not only to X but also to Meta and TikTok.
The Spanish government has declared its intention to create a safe digital environment for children and emphasized that the algorithmic dissemination of harmful content is unacceptable. The investigation may cover both the creation of such content and the mechanisms of its distribution through social networks.
In parallel, regulatory pressure on technology platforms is growing in the European Union. The European Commission launched its own proceedings against X in late January under the Digital Services Act. The Irish Data Protection Commission has also opened an investigation into Grok's activities in the context of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament is discussing the possibility of a pan-European ban on so-called AI-"pornification" tools, and negotiations are ongoing regarding the criminalization of creating child sexual abuse material generated with artificial intelligence.
Recall
The European Commission will ask Meta to suspend new terms that prohibit competing AI chatbots from using WhatsApp. This is due to concerns that Meta is violating the bloc's antitrust rules.