Warren slams Trump admin for pressuring EU to relax tech regulations
Ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., speaks with the media before Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies at the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing titled “Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Annual Report to Congress” at the Dirksen building on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wants to know why the Trump administration is pressuring its European allies to loosen regulations that would hold big tech companies accountable for allowing child sexual exploitation online.
In a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Wednesday, Warren called for the trade office to threaten countries across Europe with tariffs after Elon Musk launched formal investigations into xAI and the Grok image generator. A version of Grok released last year caused millions of obscene deepfakes to spread online.
“The White House’s trade negotiations appear focused on delivering benefits for the President and his tech billionaire friends rather than delivering the new manufacturing jobs and balanced trade he has promised American families,” wrote Warren, a member of the Senate Finance Committee and its trade-focused subcommittee.
National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) report On Tuesday, we identified xAI-owned X and Grok as the top two contributors to child online sexual exploitation in 2026. The group also revealed: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg tops a “Dirty Dozen” list of organizations he says profit from sexual exploitation.
Warren said in her letter that big tech companies received exemptions from many of the Trump administration’s tariffs, which shook markets last April when they were first implemented on a broad scale. Warren, meanwhile, wrote that President Donald Trump “is using tariffs to force other countries to abandon their regulations against Big Tech abuses.”
Warren is seeking records from USTR that show whether this involved contacting officials working on behalf of Musk’s businesses who sought to “challenge or undermine content moderation policies” and whether USTR officials received information from industry executives or lobbyists on the matter.
Musk’s aerospace and defense company SpaceX recently acquired xAI. The company is expected to soon file paperwork for an initial public offering that could be the largest in history.
WRISTWATCH: California AG launches investigation into xAI and Grok
