xAI seeks identities of plaintiffs in Grok deepfake lawsuit involving sexualised images - WION

On May 29, 2026, four plaintiffs filed an affidavit in a class-action lawsuit alleging significant emotional distress caused by the unauthorized creation and circulation of sexualized deepfake images via xAI's Grok chatbot. The plaintiffs, identified by the pseudonyms South Carolina Doe, South Carolina Roe, New Jersey Doe, and Ohio Doe, have expressed fears that public disclosure of their real names would lead to doxing, harassment, and retaliation from supporters of the platform. Among the group of plaintiffs, one is a minor. The legal team for the plaintiffs, representing the firm Berger Montague, argues that xAI is attempting to intimidate the individuals into dropping the litigation by threatening to expose them to further harm.

What happened

The litigation follows an analysis by the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which reported that Grok was used to generate 3 million sexualized images over an 11-day period, including 23,000 instances of potential child sexual abuse material. This data served as the evidentiary basis for claims that the platform lacks necessary safety guardrails. While a judge in the U.S. District Court of Southern California initially allowed the plaintiffs to use pseudonyms, xAI filed a motion in May 2026 requesting that the court force the disclosure of their legal identities. The company argues there is a public interest in knowing who is suing them, suggesting that because the deepfake images themselves will remain under seal, there is no inherent stigma in revealing the plaintiffs' names. The plaintiffs maintain that they will withdraw from the proceedings if their identities are publicly disclosed, citing concerns about how colleagues and employers might perceive the situation.