<\/p>\n
Authorities with the Paris cybercrime unit raided the offices of Elon Musk\u2019s X as part of an investigation into suspected criminal activity linked to his AI tool, Grok, including unlawful data extraction as well as the generation and possession of child pornography.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the French prosecutor\u2019s office announced both Musk and his former chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, have been ordered to appear at hearings in April,\u00a0according to the BBC.<\/p>\n
While Musk called the raid a \u201cpolitical attack,\u201d the operation followed the release of\u00a0an analysis\u00a0from the U.K.-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) that found a 26,000% spike in AI-generated videos and images depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM).<\/p>\n
Speaking with CBN News, Benjamin Bull, general counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), offered a bold characterization of Musk\u2019s handling of CSAM on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n
When Musk first purchased Twitter, he pledged to tackle the rampant child pornography on the social media platform, even\u00a0writing in 2022, \u201cRemoving child exploitation is priority #1.\u201d And yet, it has remained a rampant issue on the site \u2014\u00a0one seemingly now made worse by Grok.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll say whatever\u2019s necessary to get through the moment,\u201d Bull said of Musk. \u201cIf it suits his purpose and he\u2019s being examined toughly, he\u2019ll say whatever it takes to present a winning position. He\u2019s done nothing to eliminate the CSAM on his platform. In fact, if anything, the problem\u2019s gotten much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bull went on to argue that addressing the problem of child abuse online is heavily clouded by the on-again-off-again relationship between Musk and President Donald Trump, as well as multi-billion-dollar investments by big tech companies like Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.<\/p>\n
In 2024, after successfully passing the Senate, House Speaker Mike Johnson stalled the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in the House of Representatives. The bill, cosponsored by Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), faced scrutiny from some conservatives \u2014\u00a0including Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) \u2014\u00a0worried the proposal could inadvertently lead to internet censorship and government overreach. They argued the law could strong-arm tech companies into over-moderating content to avoid litigation and may result in future government authorities interpreting \u201charmful content\u201d through ideological lenses.<\/p>\n
Bull sees it differently.<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s decision to block a vote on KOSA came around the same time Meta announced plans to build a $10 billion data center in Louisiana. It should be noted the speaker\u00a0was pressed\u00a0on the suggestion of a quid pro quo deal on Fox News\u2019 \u201cFox & Friends,\u201d and he denied it.<\/p>\n
Bull said that, while Johnson \u201cwants to do the right thing,\u201d he is forced to play \u201chardball politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most alarming concerns regarding CSAM or revenge pornography \u2014\u00a0especially that which is made out of whole cloth using artificial intelligence \u2014\u00a0is its permanence: once it\u2019s on the internet, it is there forever. In fact, author and activist Laila Mickelwait\u00a0told CBN News\u00a0pornography sites like Pornhub are virtual crime scenes housing images and videos of CSAM, sextortion, and non-consent victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce it\u2019s online,\u201d Bull explained, \u201cit can be downloaded and then re-uploaded. \u2026 Once it\u2019s on the internet, there\u2019s a very high likelihood that it\u2019ll never come down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Calling the matter \u201cprofoundly dangerous,\u201d Bull urged the Federal Trade Commission and law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to take similar actions to the Paris\u2019 cyber-crime unit.<\/p>\n
Donna Rice Hughes, CEO of Enough Is Enough, similarly sounded the alarm during an interview with CBN News, saying that \u2014\u00a0with the evolution of AI \u2014\u00a0\u201cyou don\u2019t need anything,\u201d other than a person\u2019s image or likeness, to victimize that individual.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can take a picture of anyone\u2019s child in a Christmas photo, and you can deep-fake it, which means you can actually remove that child\u2019s clothes, you can age that child, you can have that child do anything you want [him or her] to do sexually,\u201d she warned. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what\u2019s happening with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the moral problems and sinfulness of pornography \u2014 especially illicit material victimizing children \u2014\u00a0Hughes pointed out that, even artificially generated CSAM could very well lead to the abuse of real children as predators\u2019 desires escalate.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll it\u2019s doing is fueling that desire,\u201d she said. \u201cThe data and the research shows that, when someone uses child abuse material, they get hooked on it, then it increases their desire to act out against a real child. That\u2019s just the facts. It\u2019s all fueling it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Hughes and Bull urged Americans to call their lawmakers to push for legislation on these issues.<\/p>\n
Bull, for his part, also urged parents to proactively protect their children from the dangers that accompany access to smart devices, suggesting kids really should not be using smartphones until they are at least in their late teens.<\/p>\n
You can watch our full conversations with both Hughes and Bull in the videos above.<\/p>\n
Please sign up for\u00a0Faithwire\u2019s daily newsletter\u00a0and download the\u00a0CBN News app\u00a0to stay up-to-date with the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.<\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Authorities with the Paris cybercrime unit raided the offices of Elon Musk\u2019s X as part of an investigation into suspected criminal activity linked to his AI tool, Grok, including unlawful data extraction as well as the generation and possession of child pornography. Additionally, the French prosecutor\u2019s office announced both Musk and his former chief executive,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[5810,2040,5809,363,5811,5806,5807,5808],"class_list":["post-18025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-activity","tag-alleged","tag-criminal","tag-elon","tag-grok","tag-musks","tag-offices","tag-raided"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}