The disturbing reason why lawmakers want Apple, Google to remove X and Grok from app stores
A trio of Senators sent a letter demanding action from Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai.
A trio of Senators from the left side of the aisle are requesting that Apple and Google remove social media app X and the Grok AI app from the App Store and Play Store respectively. The Grok reply bot on X has been pushing out thousands of sexualized images of real people (women mostly, but children too) without their consent. To slow the creation of these images from being created on X, the platform limited the use of image generation to subscribers paying for X's premium service. X also restricted the type of images that the Grok reply bot can create on the platform once known as Twitter.
Sexualized deepfakes show women wearing "skimpy clothes" on X and Grok
However, NBC News reports that in the standalone Grok app (iOS/Android), website, and the Grok tab on X, the sexualized deepfakes can still be created. These images show women wearing "skimpy clothes," although some of the photos show children in the same situation. In some of these images, users were able to get Grok to show the subjects in transparent or semi-transparent underwear which resulted in the images showing them nude. Both X and Grok are controlled by Elon Musk, while X is a subsidiary of Musk's xAI company. The latter is the AI firm that powers Grok.
Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, all three Democrats, have written and signed an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking the two executives to enforce their app stores' terms of service against X and Grok "for their mass generation of nonconsensual sexualized images of women and children. X's generation of these harmful and likely illegal depictions of women and children has shown complete disregard for your stores' distribution terms."
The Senators say that Apple and Google must remove X and Grok from their app storefronts
Enforcing the terms of service on both Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store would result in a ban on the creation of the sexualized deepfakes that was possible on the X app and can still be created on the Grok app. As Senator Wyden correctly pointed out in a statement made today, the changes made by X do not stop the app from creating nonconsensual sexual imagery that ends up on social media feeds.
Wyden told NBC News, "All X’s changes do is make some of its users pay for the privilege of producing horrific images on the X app, while Musk profits from the abuse of children." Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store both have terms of service that prevent apps from showing sexualized images of people without their consent, the Senators wrote in their letter.
The letter also says that "Apple and Google must remove these apps from the application stores until X’s policy violations are addressed." It points out how fast Apple and Google were able to take down apps when asked to do so by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after DHS demanded that apps lawfully tracking immigration enforcement activities, like ICEBlock and Red Dot, be removed from the App Store and Google Play Store.
"Your app stores’ policies are clear. Google’s terms of service require apps to “prohibit users from creating, uploading, or distributing content that facilitates the exploitation or abuse of children” including prohibiting the “portrayal of children in a manner that could result in the sexual exploitation of children.” Apps that do not are said to be subject to “immediate removal from Google Play” for violations. Similarly, 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.”
-Letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai from three U.S. Senators
The Senators ask for a response from Cook and Pichai by January 23rd
The letter points out the severity of this situation and says to Cook and Pichai, "We hope you will demonstrate a similar level of responsiveness and initiate swift action to remove the X and Grok apps from your app stores. Given the severity of the harm, at the very least, temporary removal pending a full investigation of the claims is appropriate."
The Senators ask for a written response from Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai by January 23, 2026 so that they can understand how Apple and Google treat the X and Grok apps under the tech firms' respective terms of service.
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