Apple secretly threatened to pull Grok from the App Store over deepfakes on X

In January 2026, Apple privately threatened to remove the AI app Grok from the App Store because the X platform was failing to contain a wave of unwanted sexual deepfakes. NBC News reported this, citing a private letter from Apple to US senators.

According to the letter, Apple contacted the X and Grok teams after receiving user complaints and seeing news coverage of the scandal. The company demanded that the developers "develop a plan to improve content moderation." The threat was stated plainly: without concrete measures, Grok risked leaving the app store.

The deepfake scandal erupted on X in late 2025 and early 2026, when users en masse posted AI-generated images that undress real people without their consent. The wave of content was so large that it drew public criticism of X and Grok, as well as of Apple and Google, for taking no visible action against apps that spread such material.

Notably, Apple acted quietly: the threat was made behind closed doors while public pressure on the company mounted. Critics pointed out that Apple, with enormous leverage as the owner of the App Store, was slow to respond publicly. In the end, Grok was never removed, at least as of the time of publication.

The story exposes a long-standing contradiction: the App Store is positioned as an environment with strict safety rules, yet Apple often applies real enforcement behind the scenes and inconsistently. When the stakes involve a platform with a audience of millions and the backing of one of the world's most influential entrepreneurs, even the biggest tech gatekeeper prefers to tread carefully.

The incident raises the question of how platforms and app stores should respond to systemic violations by major players, and whether they are ready to pay the political price for truly tough decisions.