A coalition of women’s rights organisations, technology watchdogs and progressive campaigners is urging Apple and Google, owned by Alphabet, to remove the social media platform X and its associated chatbot, Grok, from their app stores.
In open letters released on Wednesday, the groups accused the Elon Musk-owned services of producing illegal content that breaches both companies’ app store policies.
The campaign, backed by organisations including the feminist group UltraViolet, the National Organization for Women, MoveOn and the parents’ advocacy group ParentsTogether Action, seeks to increase pressure on Musk after Grok began generating sexually explicit, demeaning or violent images involving women and children.
“We are strongly urging Apple and Google to treat this as a matter of real urgency,” said Jenna Sherman, campaign director at UltraViolet, speaking to Reuters ahead of the letters’ publication. “They are facilitating a system in which thousands, potentially tens of thousands, of people — particularly women and children — are being sexually exploited through apps they themselves distribute.”
X did not respond to a request for comment. Its parent company, xAI, which develops Grok, replied only: “Legacy Media Lies.” Apple and Google also failed to respond to repeated requests for comment.
Concerns have intensified after X was inundated with highly realistic images of women and minors in revealing clothing around the start of the new year.
Malaysia and Indonesia have already banned Grok over explicit material, while regulators in Europe and the UK have launched investigations or demanded explanations.
At the same time, some organisations and prominent figures are withdrawing from X. On Tuesday, the American Federation of Teachers announced it was leaving the platform, citing indecent images of children generated by Grok.
Although X has modified the chatbot so that images created or altered by Grok are no longer shared on the public timeline, a Reuters test conducted on Tuesday found that the tool could still generate bikini-clad versions of people’s photographs on request.
Sherman said that while Apple and Google publicly emphasise their commitment to protecting children, their response to X would demonstrate “what their values truly look like in practice”.
Small Cirrus SR 20 crashed in Littleborough, Rochdale, after taking off from Birmingham Airport...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 3) said the U.S. is negotiating with Iran "right now," after Tehran demanded that planned talks be held in...
A second group of Palestinian medical evacuees arrived in Egypt from Gaza via the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday (February 3), the second day since ...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv is waiting for a response from the United States after overnight Russian attacks dam...
Spain and Greece have moved toward banning teenagers from social media as European governments reassess the risks digital platforms pose to children....
Small Cirrus SR 20 crashed in Littleborough, Rochdale, after taking off from Birmingham Airport
President Donald Trump on Tuesday (February 3) said the U.S. is negotiating with Iran "right now," after Tehran demanded that planned talks be held in Oman not Türkiye, and that the scope be narrowed.
A second group of Palestinian medical evacuees arrived in Egypt from Gaza via the Rafah border crossing on Tuesday (February 3), the second day since the crossing reopened.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Kyiv is waiting for a response from the United States after overnight Russian attacks damaged energy infrastructure across the country, raising fresh questions over Moscow’s commitment to a proposed halt on strikes.
Heavy snow continued to batter northern and western Japan on Saturday (31 January) leaving cities buried under record levels of snowfall and prompting warnings from authorities. Aomori city in northern Japan recorded 167 centimetres of snow by Friday - the highest January total since 1945.
The United States accused Cuba of interfering with the work of its top diplomat in Havana on Sunday (1 February) after small groups of Cubans jeered at him during meetings with residents and church representatives.
Talks with the U.S. should be pursued to secure national interests as long as "threats and unreasonable expectations" are avoided, President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X on Tuesday (3 February).
Early voting for Thailand’s parliamentary elections began on Sunday (1 February), with more than two million eligible voters casting ballots nationwide ahead of the 8 February general election, as authorities acknowledged errors and irregularities at some polling stations.
Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) said on Sunday that it carried out a targeted operation against the al-Qaeda-affiliated group al-Shabaab, killing 13 members, including five senior figures, in the Middle Shabelle region.
Wall Street ended sharply lower on Tuesday as investors worried about AI creating more competition for software makers, keeping them on edge ahead of quarterly reports from Alphabet and Amazon later this week.
U.S. stock markets finished mixed on Wednesday (28 January) as investors reacted calmly after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, a decision that had been widely expected and largely priced in.
The S&P 500 edged to a record closing high on Tuesday, marking its fifth consecutive day of gains, as strong advances in technology stocks offset a sharp selloff in healthcare shares and a mixed batch of corporate earnings.
Chevron is in talks with Iraq’s oil ministry over potential changes to the commercial framework governing the West Qurna 2 oilfield, one of the world’s largest producing assets, after Baghdad nationalised the field earlier this month following U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia’s Lukoil.
Argentina's economic activity shrunk 0.3% in November compared with the same month last year, marking the first monthly contraction of 2025, data from Argentina's national statistics agency showed on Wednesday.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment