{"id":443357,"date":"2026-01-20T11:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T10:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/01\/20\/deepfake-su-x-lue-ha-le-regole-ma-fatica-ad-applicarle\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T14:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T13:30:20","slug":"deepfakes-on-x-the-eu-has-rules-but-struggles-to-enforce-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/01\/20\/deepfakes-on-x-the-eu-has-rules-but-struggles-to-enforce-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Deepfakes on X: the EU has rules, but struggles to enforce them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Regulating artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly complex for the European Union. The attention of the EU institutions is now focused on countering deepfakes<\/strong> (images manipulated by artificial intelligence) and the sexual exploitation on social media of this content on X, Elon Musk<\/strong>\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n

Images circulated on X<\/h3>\n

\nHowever, the numerous tools available to Member States seem insufficient to solve this problem. A few weeks ago, images created by Grok (the artificial intelligence of social network X) that sexualised women and children circulated unchecked on the internet. <\/strong>The lack of consent and the dangers posed by this dissemination required the intervention of European Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen<\/strong>. “This feature is unacceptable, and X has been asked to remove it. We are now assessing what other ways X may be violating the DSA,” Virkkunen said.<\/p>\n

\"Elon<\/a>
(credits: Alain Jocard \/ Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

European rules<\/h3>\n

\nIn the Chamber, the Vice-President listed the options available to the EU to tackle the problem. “The Digital Services Act<\/a> (DSA) mitigates the risks of online sexual material being disseminated<\/strong> and amplified without consent,” Virkkunen told MEPs. She went on to say that “there is a directive on the protection of minors and the process for the implementation of the AI Act<\/a> is about to be completed, which will take effect in August.”\n<\/p>\n

In addition, this afternoon, the Executive Vice-President will present the new regulatory package dedicated<\/strong> to the telecommunications sector.<\/strong> Although the issue is not strictly related to the spread of deepfake content, network management is fundamental for digital infrastructures such as X and its counterparts.\n<\/p>\n

According to reports, the Commission has opted for a cautious approach, with no specific taxes imposed on platforms. The drafts currently in circulation only mention a mechanism for voluntary cooperation between OTTs<\/strong> (content service providers such as Netflix and Amazon) and network operators. <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Henna<\/a>
Executive Vice-President of the Commission responsible for Democracy and Technological Sovereignty, Henna Virkkunen (photo: Valentine Zeler\/European Commission)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/strong><\/figure>\n

<\/p>\n

Everyone against X except the patriots<\/h3>\n

<\/strong>However, MEPs have been calling for greater Commission intervention, as the problem is not being resolved. MEP Alexandra Geese <\/strong>of the Green Party was the most vocal: “This morning, we heard about images of abuse against other minors. The abuse is not over.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Although the issue goes far beyond Grok and social network X, most MEPs referred directly to Elon Musk. The most vocal was the liberal Veronika Cifrov\u00e1<\/strong>: “When I entered politics, a video of me dancing in a bikini was shared on social media<\/strong>. I can defend myself, but this also happens to underage girls who have no way of deleting the content.” Referring to the tech giants, she added: “You can make money in lots of ways, and you have chosen to do so by exploiting images of children in bikinis<\/strong>.” <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Renew MEP,Veronika Cifrov\u00e1 (Source: European Parliament) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

In any case, there is a broad consensus: both Jeroen Lenaers of the Popular Party and Alex Agius of the Socialists have called for greater firmness on the issue. The only one who used a less clear-cut language was Virginie Joron of the Patriots: “Many practices cause outrage, but we must remain consistent with the law. Minors must be protected without hypocrisy or excess. Banning a tool is not the solution<\/strong>.” IIaria Salis (The Left) also weighed in on the issue, summing up the state of the internet in 2026 with striking frankness: “The internet is an extraordinary tool, but it can also be full of crap.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice-President Virkkunen lists the tools that the EU can use: the AI Act, the Digital Services Act and the directives on the protection of children and women. However, the images continue to circulate online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7891,"featured_media":415391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25710],"tags":[25821,32892,26091],"class_list":["post-443357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-net-tech-en","tag-artificial-intelligence-en","tag-deepfake","tag-x-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443358,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443357\/revisions\/443358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}