Irish Regulator Investigates X Over Use of EU Data

Data Protection Commission launches probe into X's use of EU data. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has launched an investigat...

Data Protection Commission launches probe into X's use of EU data.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) has launched an investigation into social media platform X over its alleged use of personal data from European Union users to train its artificial intelligence system, Grok. As the lead EU regulator for X due to the company’s EU operations being based in Ireland, the DPC holds significant enforcement power under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), including the ability to impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s global revenue.

The probe will focus on "the processing of personal data comprised in publicly-accessible posts posted on the X social media platform by EU/EEA users, for the purposes of training generative artificial intelligence models," the DPC stated. This follows a previous legal case in which the Irish regulator sought to block X from processing EU user data for AI development.

Earlier, X had agreed to halt training its AI models using EU users' personal data before providing them with an opt-out option. The DPC subsequently dropped its court case, stating that X had committed to these restrictions permanently.

The DPC has a strong track record of enforcing GDPR violations, having issued substantial fines to major tech firms, including Microsoft’s LinkedIn, TikTok, and Meta, with penalties against Meta alone exceeding €3 billion since 2018. X, formerly known as Twitter, was fined €450,000 ($511,000) in 2020—the DPC’s first penalty under GDPR—but has not faced sanctions since.

The investigation comes amid broader tensions between U.S. tech companies and EU regulators. Former U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration have criticized EU data regulations, framing fines on American firms as a form of "taxation." Elon Musk, owner of X and a prominent Trump adviser, has also opposed EU content moderation laws, particularly those imposed directly by Brussels.