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EU Opens Major Investigation Into Elon Musk's X · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  The European Commission launched a formal investigation into Elon
• 0:03
  Musk's X platform today over the Grok AI chatbot's ability to
• 0:07
  generate sexually explicit deepfake images of women and
• 0:11
  children. Now, the probe comes after Grok
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  users created roughly 3,000,000 sexualized images in just 11
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  days, according to research from the Center for Countering
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  Digital Heat, with an estimated 23 thousand of those images
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  appearing to depict minors. Now, if X is found to have
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  violated the Digital Services Act, the company could face
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  fines reaching 6% of its total global revenue.
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  Now, what safeguards did X failed to implement before
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  rolling out a tool that produced 190 explicit images per minute?
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  The investigation will examine whether X properly assessed and
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  mitigated risks before deploying Grok in the EU, and whether the
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  platform's response to the crisis came too late.
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  We'll cover the specific allegations against X, the
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  regulatory firestorm now spreading across multiple
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  continents and the statement from the E us henna Vicanin but
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  calling those deep fakes the violent form of degradation and
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  we'll get right back into that after this short break.
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  Now the European Commission announced Monday that it is
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  opening a wide reaching investigation of the X under the
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  digital services act, the block sweeping rule book for keeping
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  Internet users safe from harmful content.
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  And the pro focus is on whether X conducted proper risk
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  assessments before adding Grok's image generation capabilities to
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  its platform, and whether the company took adequate steps to
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  prevent illegal content from spreading across the EU.
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  Now the scandal erupted in late December 2025 when XAI rolled
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  out a one click image editing feature for Grok that allowed
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  users to alter photos with a single prompt.
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  Within days, users discovered they could digitally undress
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  real people, including celebrities, politicians and
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  ordinary social media users, by uploading the photos and
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  requesting Grok to generate explicit versions.
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  Bloomberg research found that X users utilizing Grok posted more
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  non consensual naked or sexual imagery than users of any other
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  website during this period. The feature XEI marketed as
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  Spicy Mode became a factory for harassment at scale.
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  Unlike competing AI image generators from Open AI, Google
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  Grok appears to have launched without adequate safeguards to
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  prevent the creation of intimate and nudified images of real
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  people. Henna Verkinen, the EU's
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  executive vice president for tech, sovereignty, security and
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  democracy, issued a blistering statement alongside the
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  investigation announcement. She got sexual defects of women
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  and children. A violent and unacceptable form
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  of degradation is stated directly that the investigation
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  will determine whether X met its legal obligations under the DSA
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  or whether it treated the rights of European citizens, including
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  those of women and children, as collateral damage of its
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  ServiceNow. The Commission also revealed it
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  is extending a separate investigation into X's
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  recommendation systems that began in December 2023,
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  examining whether X's algorithm is disseminating illegal
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  content, including sexual child abuse material.
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  That expansion signals the Grot controversy has exposed deeper
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  systemic problems with how X moderates contact across its
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  entire platform. Now X responded to the
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  investigation by pointing to measures that it implemented in
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  mid January after the global outcry peaked.
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  They got caught, so they did that.
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  And the company said it takes action to remove high priority
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  volatile and other sexualized content and non consensual
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  nudity, and that it takes appropriate action against
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  accounts to violate its rules now.
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  X also stated it reports accounts seeking Child
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  Exploitation materials to law enforcement is necessary.
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  A European Commission official acknowledged these measures
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  during a briefing, but told journalists the company had not
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  properly assessed the risks before launching this chatbot.
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  The official, who asked to remain anonymous, said the
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  Commission has quite a few tools at its disposal and that he find
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  was possible. Now what we are after is
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  changing the platform's behavior.
• 4:11
  They stated. I've been digging into the stats
• 4:14
  of the show, 37% of you are following the channel.
• 4:18
  I'd love you, thank you. And 6063%, I got my math right
• 4:21
  there around that amount. It's actually went up now.
• 4:24
  So there's more like 39% people following and 61% of you aren't
• 4:30
  following. So we're we're growing people.
• 4:33
  This is great, but you just haven't hit the follower
• 4:36
  subscribe button if you're not following already.
• 4:39
  And I've been doing this for about 6 to 8 years.
• 4:41
  Somewhere in that time frame, I actually looked back the other
• 4:44
  day, over 1000 episodes of this. I'm going to be doing it for the
• 4:48
  next 10 years. All they ask from you is one
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  second of your time. Hit the follower subscribe
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  button on whatever platform you're on right now.
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  I'll be gratefully, gratefully blissed to have you here.
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  Thank you so much and let's get back into this deep concerning
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  topic that's going on right now. This investigation from the EU
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  adds to a mounting pile of regulatory actions against X and
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  XAI across multiple jurisdictions.
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  California Attorney General Rob Banta announced an investigation
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  on January 14th and followed up with a cease and desist letter
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  demanding XAI immediately halt the creation and distribution of
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  deep fake images. Bonta cited an analysis showing
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  that more than half of the 20,000 images generated by XAI
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  between Christmas and New Year's depicted people in minimal
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  clothing, with some appearing to be children.
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  Disgusting. California Department of Justice
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  gave XAI 5 days to provide confirmation of steps it was
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  taking to address the issues in a coalition of 35 state
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  attorneys general also sent a letter demanding XCI take
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  additional action to prevent Grok from generating non
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  consensual intimate images and child sexual abuse material.
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  Now, the United Kingdom's media regulatory regulator Ofcom
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  launched its own formal investigation on January 12th
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  under the Online Safety Act, and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer
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  called the Grok generated images disgusting and unlawful, saying
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  X needed to get a grip on the application.
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  Ofcom has the power to impose fines of 10% of worldwide
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  revenue for breaches of its rules, and could potentially
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  seek a court order forcing Internet service providers to
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  ban X entirely in Britain. Now, when asked whether X could
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  be banned, Business Secretary Peter Kyle responded yes, of
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  course, though he noted that power rests with Ofcom.
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  Indonesia banned Croc outright on January 10th, and Malaysia
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  followed suit on January 11th before partially lifting its
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  restrictions. France, Germany, Australia have
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  also opened their own investigations into the
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  platform. Now, the timeline of X's
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  response reels a company scrambling to contain damage
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  rather than prevent harm and damage.
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  When criticism first emerged in early January, Musk mocked the
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  outcry on his X account, as he usually does.
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  The company initially responded by limiting explicit image
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  generation to just paying subscribers and moves Starmer
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  condemned as an effort, a front to victims and not a solution.
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  By January 14th, after investigations had launched in
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  multiple countries, X finally announced it would prevent all
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  users from using Grok to create images of real people in
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  revealing clothing. The company also said it would
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  Geo block the feature in jurisdictions where such content
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  is illegal. So while all of this was going
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  on, I wanted to see if X was actually doing this, if they
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  were stopping and limiting the image generation for all users.
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  I'm a paying customer of X, so I should not have had asked Grok.
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  I asked X to generate a picture of of the President of the
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  United States in a string bikini.
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  And guess what? 4 seconds later, there you go,
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  made Donald Trump in a string bikini.
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  And it was disgusting. And by the way, it was pretty
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  gross and weird. So I was like, you know what?
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  Maybe, maybe it was a fluke. Let's try it on Elon.
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  Tried it on Elon, same thing happened.
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  That also was not very flattering.
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  But just to show you that there are ways around this and you
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  could make sexually explicit images of people without their
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  consent very easily. Mine were in a bikini.
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  So not that big of a deal, right?
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  But it was about another person, which is not the right thing to
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  do. You're not supposed to make
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  those images of other people. So even though they did restrict
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  people from doing it, there's still ways around it.
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  Now let's get back into the story and see what kind of fines
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  and legal, regulatory actions are going to be taken.
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  This financial exposure for X is pretty big.
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  EU already find the platform $140 million in December over
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  its deceptive design of the blue verification check mark.
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  Of course, X has not paid that fine yet, according to EU
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  officials, though the company still has time to settle it.
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  ADSA violation in this new investigation could result in
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  fines up to 6% of global annual revenue.
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  The UK's Online strategy Air Safety Act carries similar
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  penalties of up to 10% of worldwide revenue.
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  Multiple civil lawsuits have also been filed, including one
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  from Ashley Sinclair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children,
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  who alleges Grok generated sexualized images depicting her
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  as a child, in a bikini, as an adult and sexually explicit
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  poses. Disgusting.
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  Now the Grok investigation arrives at a tense moment in
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  transatlantic relations. US Secretary of State Marco
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  Rubio responded to the December EU find by saying the Block is
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  attacking American companies, and a State Department official
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  warned that nothing is off the table when it comes to free
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  speech. The EU has made clear that its
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  focus is changing platform behavior rather than simply
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  collecting fines. The Digital Services Act gives
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  regulators the power to impose operational requirements, demand
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  specific changes to product features, leave it suspend
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  services that repeatedly violate European law.
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  No other X will face such drastic measures.
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  Depends on the investigation's findings and the company's
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  willingness to implement meaningful safeguards.