U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, Ben Ray Lujan, and Edward Markey have sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, requested that both companies remove X Corp’s X and Grok apps from their app stores, due to recent incidents of “mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children.”
There have been several reports in recent days about Grok’s AI image generation capabilities being used to create images depicting women and minors in only bikinis or underwear. While X has reportedly scaled back the ability for Grok to generate images in response to X posts by non-paying users, The Verge reports that the tools are still available to paying subscribers .
The senators argue that the “illegal depictions” are in violation of Apple’s and Google’s app store terms and urge the two companies to remove the apps until the violations are addressed.
.Apple’s terms of service bar apps from including “offensive” or “just plain creepy” content, which under any definition must include nonconsensually-generated sexualized images of children and women. Further, Apple’s terms explicitly bar apps from including content that is “[o]vertly sexual or pornographic material” including material “intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.”
Turning a blind eye to X’s egregious behavior would make a mockery of your moderation practices. Indeed, not taking 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. This principle has been core to your advocacy against legislative reforms to increase app store competition and your defenses to claims that your app stores abuse their market power through their payment systems.
The senators want a written response from Cook and Pichai by January 23.
