X Stops Using Some EU User Posts for AI Training

Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) said Thursday (Aug. 8) that X has agreed to suspend the use of personal data from some users’ public posts on the social media platform to train the artificial intelligence (AI) model, Grok. 

This agreement applies to public posts that were made by European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) users of X and were processed by the company between May 7 and Aug. 1, the DPC said in a Thursday press release.

The processing will be suspended while the DPC and other EU and EEA regulators investigate whether this use of the public posts complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to the release.

The agreement came as the DPC brought a court case against X focused on its use of the data, and after “extensive engagement” between the DPC and X, per the release.

“One of our main roles as an independent regulator and rights-based organization is to ensure the best outcome for data subjects and today’s developments will help us to continue protecting the rights and freedoms of X users across the EU and EEA,” DPC Commissioner Des Hogan said in the release.

“We will continue to engage with all data controllers to ensure the rights of our citizens under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the GDPR are upheld.”

A lawyer for X told the Irish court hearing the case brought by the DPC that the company would stop using the data until the court makes a decision in the case, Reuters reported Thursday.

A judge had determined that X began processing EU users’ data to train AI systems on May 7 but didn’t begin rolling out the option for users to opt out until July 16, according to the report.

The company’s lawyers plan to file opposition papers against the suspension order by Sept. 4, per the report.

In a Wednesday (Aug. 7) post on the social media platform, X Global Government Affairs said that X communicated to users how it uses data to train AI, provides a simple control that allows users to decide if their public posts can be used for AI training, and allows users to control their interactions with Grok.

“The order that the Irish DPC has sought is unwarranted, overbroad and singles out X without any justification. This is deeply troubling,” X Global Government Affairs said in the post.

“The order applies not just to Grok but to any AI model that X uses, potentially impacting our work to keep the platform safe and possibly the ability to offer X in the EU,” it added.