Twitter is facing scrutiny in Europe for collecting tweets without permission, especially from its users, to train its bot Grok. This has raised concerns with the DPC, the Irish regulator responsible for data protection. In an update on August 8th, Twitter has agreed not to train Grok’s AI with data collected from European users during the period when the opt-out option was not available in the settings. The collection began on May 7th, and the opt-out option only appeared on July 16th, according to the judge handling the case in Ireland! It will be important to monitor the social network’s commitment to this agreement.
By unilaterally harvesting user messages to feed Grok with free data, Twitter is heading towards major issues in Europe. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has requested an order from the country’s Supreme Court to “suspend, restrict, or prohibit the processing of personal data of X users.”
As the European branch of the social network, Twitter International is based in Ireland, the DPC is the regulator that oversees all of Twitter’s activities in the EU. The regulator is relying on Irish data protection law for its complaint, which is based on the European data regulation (GDPR). The law states that platforms must obtain user consent before exploiting their data, which Twitter has obviously failed to do. There is a somewhat hidden method to refuse the collection of messages: Read X / Twitter uses your tweets without your consent to train its AI, here’s how to disable the feature.
The DPC intends to refer the case to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB), an EU body responsible for ensuring GDPR compliance. The penalties that the company could face amount to 4% of its global revenue. The Irish Supreme Court plans to review the process next week.
Twitter is not out of the woods yet, as the European Commission believes that verified accounts (with the blue checkmark) deceived consumers, which could lead to another sanction (this time up to 6% of global revenue)! This story is reminiscent of Meta’s previous attempt to harvest data from European users of Facebook and Instagram without consent to train its AI models. Regulators demanded the suspension of data collection, prompting Meta to block the release of its multimodal AI in Europe.
This situation serves as a reminder of the importance of data privacy and the consequences of failing to obtain user consent before collecting and using their information. It highlights the ongoing efforts of regulators to hold tech companies accountable for their data practices, ensuring that user rights are protected. Stay informed about the latest news by following 01net on Google News and WhatsApp.
