Overview
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a formal letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer alleging the administration threatened tariffs to push European regulators to ease tech rules after they opened cases into xAI’s Grok image tool.
- Warren requested USTR communications with Elon Musk’s companies and industry lobbyists about efforts to oppose content moderation policies and set a firm deadline for a response.
- Regulators in the U.K., Ireland, France, and the European Union have active investigations, including under the EU’s Digital Services Act, and a Danish court ordered xAI and Grok to stop creating or spreading sexually explicit deepfakes without consent, with special focus on child abuse material.
- The National Center on Sexual Exploitation reported that X and Grok were major sources of online sexual exploitation this year and that a past Grok release fueled millions of nonconsensual explicit images of women and minors.
- The administration has argued that European tech rules are discriminatory, while Warren says tariff policy granted Big Tech exemptions and was used to bully regulators, and any documents USTR releases could shape ongoing trade talks and digital‑safety enforcement.