The National Data Protection Agency (ANDP) and the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacom), both linked to the Brazilian Ministry of Justice and Public Security, along with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, have made recommendations to the company controlling the digital platform X to ensure that the platform’s artificial intelligence tool, Grok, is not misused to generate and circulate inappropriate sexualized content.

According to the document released on Tuesday (Jan. 20), one of the recommendations is the creation, within a maximum of 30 days, of technical and operational procedures to identify, review, and remove this type of content still available on X when it is generated by Grok in response to user commands.

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The institutions also request the immediate suspension of accounts involved in the production of sexual or eroticized images of children and adolescents, as well as of adults without their authorization, generated using Grok.

They also recommend implementing a “transparent, accessible, and effective mechanism” that allows data subjects to exercise their rights, including submitting complaints about irregular, abusive, or illegal use of personal data, especially in cases involving the creation of synthetic sexualized or eroticized content without consent, with an adequate response provided within a reasonable timeframe.

The recommendations were developed in response to user complaints that pointed to the generation of synthetic sexualized content from images of real people.

They were also based on reports published in the national and international press and on tests conducted by government institutions, which indicate the illegal use of the tool by users to produce deepfakes - an artificial intelligence technique that creates false images of real people. The content is sexualized or erotic and carries pornographic connotations, involving real women, children, and adolescents.

The institutions warn that this type of content can affect the protection of personal data and consumer relations, as well as the dignity of the human person and other diffuse, collective, and unavailable individual rights - especially those of women, children, and adolescents.

“Among the joint recommendations is the immediate implementation of measures to prevent Grok from generating new images, videos, or audio files that represent children and adolescents in sexualized or eroticized contexts,” the institutions argue.

Civil Rights Framework for the Internet

According to the document, although Article 19 of the Brazilian Civil Rights Framework for the Internet stipulates that internet application providers are not responsible for harmful content published by third parties except after a court order, the document argues that removal must nevertheless be carried out.

This is because, in the case of sexualized deepfakes, they are not produced exclusively by third parties, but rather through an interaction between users and the artificial intelligence tool created and widely made available by X, “which therefore makes it a co-author of such content, and not merely its intermediary,” the text says.

The document also notes that, recently, Brazil’s Supreme Court declared the partial unconstitutionality of Article 19 of the Brazilian Internet Bill of Rights, precisely because it understands that it “does not offer sufficient protection to relevant constitutional rights.”

In the ruling, the Court established that internet application providers have a special duty of care to adopt all necessary measures to prevent the massive circulation of particularly serious crimes, such as those committed against women because of their gender, including content that propagates hatred against them.

Self-regulation

The institutions also note that X’s own self-regulation policy on non-consensual nudity prohibits the publication and sharing of explicit images or videos produced or shared without the consent of the individuals involved.

The platform also prohibits the production, manipulation, and dissemination of images of third parties with sexual or erotic content in contexts involving Grok, which makes “unsustainable, from this perspective as well, the availability of an artificial intelligence tool without rigorous filters that facilitates such conduct.”

If the recommendations are not followed or are implemented insufficiently to mitigate the identified risks, the three institutions may consider and adopt other measures, both administratively and judicially, to ensure adequate protection for the country’s citizens, especially women, children, and adolescents.

Three Kings’ Day, celebrated this Tuesday (Jan. 6), marks a centuries-old tradition in Brazilian popular culture – the passage of revelers through the streets, bringing together groups of singers and musicians chanting lines in honor of the three wise men: Balthazar, Melchior, and Caspar. Portuguese in its origin, the Folia de Reis, or Reisado, was brought to Brazil during the colonial period.

In various cities across the country, they go from house to house wearing costumes and masks and performing dances and songs with multiple string instruments, accordions, and percussion. Some groups have characters – kings, clowns, and bastions – who visit the homes of the faithful.

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Converted into saints by the Catholic Church, Belchior, Caspar, and Baltazar are said to have left the East guided by a star and carrying three gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh – symbolizing royalty, immortality, and spirituality. For devotees, the date of the arrival of the three wise men at their destination marks the end of the Christmas celebrations, which begin four Sundays before December 25, the day attributed to the birth of Jesus Christ.

Thus, January 6 marks the moment when the three wise men visit the newborn Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, an ancient city currently located in Palestine. On this day, nativity scenes, trees, and other Christmas decorations are also taken down.