The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) initiated court proceedings against the social media platform X on Tuesday (6 August), according to Ireland’s High Court website.

Grok was developed by xAI, a company founded by X owner Elon Musk, and used as a search assistant for premium accounts on the social media platform.

It is the latest in a series of conflicts around Big Tech’s intention to train large language models with user data.

On Monday (5 August), consumer organisations alleged that X was in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the EU’s landmark privacy regulation, in a complaint filed with the Irish DPC.

“The order that the Irish DPC has sought is unwarranted, overbroad and singles out X without any justification. This is deeply troubling,” X said in its Wednesday post about the case.

“The order applies not just to Grok but to any AI model that X uses, potentially impacting our work to keep the platform safe and possibly the ability to offer X in the EU,” X wrote.

The Irish DPC oversees X’s EU operations when it comes to GDPR compliance, since Twitter International, which operates X (formerly Twitter), is based in Dublin.

X slammed with data privacy complaint over AI training

Consumer organisations allege X’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool is in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in a complaint filed with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) on Monday (5 August).

Other concerns

In the court filing, the watchdog acknowledged that X implemented some mitigation measures, such as an opt-out option for users, these were not in place when the data processing began, the Irish paper also reported. Many of X’s European users have had their data processed without these protections being applied in a timely and effective manner, as required by GDPR.

Twitter International refused requests from the Irish DPC “to cease processing the personal data in question” or to defer the launch of the next version of Grok.

X did not respond to Euractiv’s request for comment at the time of publication while the Irish DPC declined to comment on an ongoing case.

X said in its post that it has been cooperative and transparent with regulators since late 2023 regarding the use of public data for AI training, updated its policies to improve transparency, and offers users greater control over their data and AI interactions compared to other companies.

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