A group of US Senators aren’t impressed by Elon Musk taking the smallest of corrective actions in moving Grok’s ability to make child porn behind a paywall, and want X removed from the App Store.
The ability for Grok to take an image of a person and generate a version of them undressed is abhorrent. But it’s also the tip of the iceberg, as the feature has also been used to show women being abused and even killed.
After initially ignoring criticism and calling nonconsensual Grok-generated images “way funnier,” Elon Musk has now removed the feature from public use. Rather than ending the issue, though, Musk is attempting to profit from it by making it be a premium feature.
US Senators Ron Wyden, Edward J. Markey, and Ben Ray Lujan figure that if you can’t stop Musk at the source, you can cut off his water supply. They have jointly written to both Apple’s Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai, asking the X be removed from their respective app stores.
“We write to ask that you enforce your app stores’ terms of service,” they write in the full letter. They note that Grok has been used to modify images “to depict women being sexually abused, humiliated, hurt, and even killed.”
The senators also say that researchers have found a Grok archive [of] nearly 100 images of potential child sexual abuse materials generated since August.
They argue that this all means that it is clear X and Grok are in violation of the app stores’ policies. In the case of Apple, they’re referring to the section in the App Store Review Guidelines regarding objectionable content.
Those do specifically say apps shouldn’t allow offensive “or just plain creepy” content.
Consequently, the senators argue that there is no escaping the fact that the Grok has breached the terms of the App Store. So turning a blind eye to this, “would make a mockery of your moderation practices.”
The senators take a dig at both Apple and Google for how they were willing to quickly remove the harmless ICEBlock app when pressured by the US government. They say they hope Apple and Google will respond with similar speed now.
They’re asking Apple to remove the X and Grok apps, at least temporarily. And they want a written response from the companies within two weeks.
Neither Apple nor Google have yet responded publicly.
US Senators
This is not the first time that any of these three senators have pursued technology issues, either through bills or letters. In 2021, for instance, Senator Ben Ray Lujan, campaigned to make social media liable for spreading health misinformation.
Going further back, Senator Edward J Markey was one of two senators who wrote to Steve Jobs about Apple privacy in 2010.
But it’s perhaps Senator Wyden who is best known for writing open letters — and possibly the most effective. In 2023, he wrote a seemingly nonsensical open letter to the Department of Justice, making the apparently absurd claim that governments were spying on iPhone owners by use of push notifications.
Apple was expected to deny this, but instead effectively said thank you. It is true, but Apple had been forbidden to reveal the fact until Wyden brought it out into the open.
AI App Store dangers
Separately, in December 2025, US attorneys general warned Apple and others that “delusional outputs” from AI apps may be violating the law.