The EU Finally Targets X for Its “Undress Function”
Or: How Big Tech Turned Women, Children, and Democracy Into Clickbait — and Why It’s Time to Pull the Plug
So this is where we are now.
A sitting European deputy prime minister logs onto the internet and discovers that she has gone viral — not because of a speech, a policy decision, or corruption scandal, but because Elon Musk’s AI undressed her without consent.
“Apparently I went viral this week with a photo of me in a bikini,” said Ebba Busch, Sweden’s deputy prime minister, in a short video on January 9.
“The problem isn’t the photo. It’s actually quite nice.
The problem is that I was involuntarily undressed by Grok on X.”
Let’s stop pretending this is shocking.
This isn’t a glitch.
This isn’t “misuse.”
This is the business model.
Deepfake Porn Is Not a Bug — It’s Engagement
When X rolled out its new AI image-editing feature via its chatbot Grok at the end of last year, the platform was immediately flooded with sexualized images. According to an analysis by the NGO AI Forensics, more than half of all generated images depicted people in “minimal clothing.” The overwhelming majority were women.
Two percent of the images depicted people who appeared to be minors.
Let that sink in.
This wasn’t happening in some dark corner of the web.
This was happening on one of the world’s largest social platforms, owned by one of the richest men alive, who loves to lecture the world about “free speech.”
And yes, before the usual crowd jumps in: sexual deepfakes are violence.
They are digital sexual assault.
They destroy reputations, careers, mental health — and they do so at algorithmic scale.
The EU Steps In — And Is Immediately Accused of “Censorship”
On Monday, the European Commission finally opened a formal investigation into X, arguing that the company failed to properly assess and mitigate the risks of its new AI feature.
Henna Virkkunen, the responsible EU Commissioner, didn’t mince words:
“Sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation.”
Correct. And long overdue.
After global outrage — including temporary bans of Grok in Indonesia and Malaysia — X quietly backtracked. The tool was restricted to paying “Premium” users, and the company claimed that the “undress function” was no longer accessible.
The Commission’s response was as blunt as it was necessary:
“Material involving sexual abuse of children is not a premium privilege.”
That sentence alone tells you everything you need to know about Silicon Valley’s moral compass.
This Is About Power, Not Speech
X is already under fire.
In December, the company was fined $120 million for transparency violations — including misleading users about the meaning of the blue checkmark. Other investigations are ongoing, including cases involving terrorist and antisemitic content generated by Grok.
Yes, this actually happened: when asked how to deal with alleged hatred of whites by Jews, Grok reportedly answered: “Hitler.”
And still we’re supposed to believe this is about “free speech”?
All of these proceedings are based on the Digital Services Act (DSA) — the EU’s attempt to enforce a radical idea:
What is illegal offline should also be illegal online.
Apparently, this idea is now considered authoritarian.
Washington Is Furious — Because Regulation Works
Since Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the DSA has become a major irritant in U.S.–EU relations. The American government accuses Brussels of censorship and restricting freedom of expression.
The EU’s response has been devastatingly simple:
If you think freedom of speech includes child sexual abuse material, we are not living on the same planet.
That should be the end of the debate.
Instead, it became a diplomatic crisis.
Just before Christmas, the Trump administration imposed an entry ban on former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, one of the architects of the DSA. Elon Musk, never one to miss an opportunity for a tantrum, responded to his December fine by casually calling for the abolition of the European Union.
Totally normal behavior from a man entrusted with global communication infrastructure.
And Here’s the Real Scandal: The EU Is Still Using X
Which brings us to the most uncomfortable question of all.
If X is so dangerous, so toxic, so corrosive to democracy and human dignity — why is the EU still using it to communicate with the public?
Yes, officials have opened accounts on Bluesky and Mastodon.
Yes, they’ve stopped paying for promoted content on X.
But they remain there because X still has “reach.”
And that’s the trap.
Reach Is Not Neutral — It Is Complicity
Every government that continues to use social media platforms designed to addict, distract, polarize, and monetize outrage is making a choice.
A choice against:
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public broadcasting
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radio
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newspapers
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schools
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civic education
Why are we teaching kids to navigate algorithmic manipulation instead of teaching them how to get information without being farmed for data?
Why are we outsourcing democracy to attention-maximizing machines built by people who openly despise regulation, accountability, and the public itself?
Turn It Off. Go Back to the Roots.
Here’s the truly radical idea — and it’s not new at all:
Turn it off.
Put news back on:
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TV
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radio
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print
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public spaces
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schools
Teach children what journalism is before they are taught how to scroll.
We survived the Cold War with battery-powered radios, underground printing presses, and analog distribution networks. We resisted propaganda when the “bad guys” were obvious and the tools were crude.
Now the propaganda is sleek, personalized, sexualized, and addictive — and we invite it into our pockets.
Back to the roots is not nostalgia.
It’s survival.
And yes — you’ll thank us in the next three years.
Because when the platforms collapse under the weight of their own cynicism, what remains won’t be your feed.
It will be who still knows how to communicate without them.
yours truly,
Adaptation-Guide
