Elon Musk’s social media platform X continues to host illegal child sexual abuse material despite ongoing efforts to remove such content, according to recent analyses. The Canadian Center for Child Protection and an independent review found that both user-posted and artificially generated abusive images appeared on the site in the first half of 2024.
The Canadian center identified instances early this year where X’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, produced dozens of explicitly sexualized images of children, including photos of known abuse victims previously documented by law enforcement. These images depicted children in compromising poses, partially or fully undressed, and with bodily fluids visible. After public criticism, X disabled Grok’s ability to generate such content in February. However, the center reported 65 specific cases of such images before the ban took effect. During this period, users also prompted Grok to alter images of known victims into sexualized depictions.
Separately, an automated search conducted during the first six months of this year found over 75 images flagged as child sexual abuse material on X. Many of these matched entries in databases maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and other child protection organizations, which host digital fingerprints of known abuse images. Some of the posted material had been previously flagged by authorities for years but remained accessible on the platform. One image, depicting a young girl subjected to oral rape, was available publicly for over an hour, accruing multiple likes and shares before removal.
X, formerly known as Twitter, was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022, who designated the removal of child sexual abuse material as a top priority. The company states it employs automated filtering technology and proprietary systems to detect and block such material from appearing. It also reports users who share exploitative content to law enforcement, with the company citing action against 780,000 accounts in the past month alone and the submission of 1.3 million reports to NCMEC this year, resulting in hundreds of arrests.
The platform maintains a zero-tolerance policy toward child sexual abuse material, including AI-generated content. A company spokesperson affirmed that users who upload or request such material face bans and law enforcement referrals. However, experts criticize X’s ongoing failures, describing the presence of known abusive content as “wildly unacceptable” and characterizing it as a significant corporate lapse.
X’s limitations in data transparency have hindered comprehensive assessments, with independent reviewers relying on limited spot checks. The platform restricts third-party access to its full dataset, complicating efforts to monitor and analyze the scale of abuse material. Other major technology companies such as Facebook and Google also depend on NCMEC’s lists to identify illegal content and face similar challenges with newly created or AI-generated images not yet documented.
The broader implications of X’s struggles have drawn scrutiny from child protection advocates and regulators. Lawsuits have been filed against xAI, the company merged with X’s AI chatbot Grok, alleging that the bot facilitated the generation of illegal sexual images of minors. The platform’s parent company, SpaceX, disclosed in a regulatory filing that Grok’s capacity to create explicit content poses financial and reputational risks.
Victims whose abuse imagery surfaced on X expressed feelings of ongoing trauma and frustration, citing the platform’s failure to fully control the spread of their exploitation. One woman, whose childhood sexual abuse images were found on the site, accused X of profiting from her abuse and criticized the lack of effective consequences for those responsible.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children continues to provide its database of digital fingerprints of abusive images to multiple tech companies, encouraging them to utilize all available tools to prevent the circulation of such content. “How are you not using this tool in a proper way?” said John Shehan, an executive at the center, highlighting the expectation that platforms aggressively detect, remove, and report child sexual abuse material.