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Elon Musk’s xAI and its chatbot Grok have been banned by a Dutch court from creating non-consensual AI-generated images of adults and children, further increasing legal pressure on the company.
The Amsterdam District Court on Thursday issued a legal order to xAI prohibiting it from producing and distributing sexual images that “represent a person partially or fully naked without their express permission,” according to a Google translation of the court statement.
The ruling is the first case against Grok in Europe, applies to child sexual abuse material, and prevents Platform X, formerly known as Twitter, from offering Grok as a feature in the region. According to the injunction, xAI will be fined 100,000 euros ($115,000) for each day it fails to comply with the judgment, with a maximum penalty of 10 million euros.
The lawsuit was brought by Offlimits, a Dutch nonprofit organization that fights online sexual abuse, especially against children and young people. xAI was also ordered to pay Offlimits €2.2 million in legal costs within 14 days.
“The judge drew a clear line yesterday: technology is not a license to violate human rights online,” Offlimits managing director Robert Hoving said in a statement. “It’s also great that Europe voted yesterday to ban the Nudify tool. This is a double celebration, because it’s important. Every country in Europe should enjoy the same online rights.”
CNBC reached out to xAI for comment on the ruling, but has not yet received a response.
According to the Center to Combat Digital Hate (CCDH), an estimated 3 million sexual images were generated by Grok between December 29 and January 9, 2026. More than 23,000 of the images appeared to depict children.
In January, xAI took steps to prevent Grok from creating sexual images of real people on X, a restriction that applied to all users, including paid members. However, Offlimits found that the restrictions were easily circumvented, and a judge ruled that the measures were insufficient to adequately protect users.
Numerous lawsuits have been filed against xAI, and on Tuesday, the city of Baltimore became the first major U.S. city to sue the company for violating the city’s consumer protection law and falsely advertising Grok and X as safe for users.
The complaint cited the “put your girlfriend in a bikini” trend, in which Grok is used to make naked images of others. xAI CEO Musk also participated, sharing an image of himself wearing a string bikini created by Grok.
Additionally, three Tennessee teenagers sued xAI last week, accusing Grok of creating content that showed sexually explicit poses and scenarios.
Meanwhile, the European Commission launched an investigation into xAI in January for disseminating sexually explicit content of children and other individuals without their consent, and it is being investigated under the Digital Services Act (DSA) regulations.
The UK’s online safety regulator Ofcom and the Information Commissioner’s Office have launched their own investigation into X and the distribution of non-consensual sexual images.
Although widespread rulings have not yet been implemented across Europe, Southeast Asian countries Malaysia and Indonesia in January blocked access to Grok over the production of non-consensual sexual content, following “repeated failures by Company X” to address risks associated with AI tools.
