Apple had privately threatened to remove Elon Musk’s Grok app from the App Store after it was found violating the company’s content guidelines, according to a letter obtained by NBC News (via 9To5Mac). Earlier this year, Apple faced intense pressure to take action against Grok and the X app after users discovered that the chatbot could generate sexualised deepfake images. Many of these images involved women, including minors.

The issue quickly went viral, sparking backlash and raising serious concerns about safety and moderation. Survey Thank you for completing the survey! Although Apple did not publicly comment at the time, the letter reveals that the company acted behind the scenes.

NBC News reports that Apple ‘found X and Grok in violation of its guidelines,’ and ‘privately threatened to remove’ Grok from the App Store. Also read: Microsoft unveils MAI Image 2 Efficient AI model, calls it production workhorse: How to access According to the report, Apple reached out to the teams of both X and Grok after it received complaints and saw news about the backlash and required ‘the app developers to create a plan to improve content moderation.’ X later submitted an updated version of the Grok app for review, but Apple rejected it, saying the ‘changes didn’t go far enough.’ After that, Elon Musk’s company submitted revised versions of both the X and Grok apps.

Only one of them was approved initially. Also read: Google launches Gemini Personal Intelligence in India: What is it and how to use it According to Apple’s letter sent to US senators, ‘Apple reviewed the next submissions made by the developers and determined that X had substantially resolved its violations, but the Grok app remained out of compliance. As a result, we rejected the Grok submission and notified the developer that additional changes to remedy the violation would be required, or the app could be removed from the App Store.’ ‘Following further engagement and changes by the Grok developer, we determined that Grok had substantially improved and therefore approved its latest submission.’ These details help explain why Grok suddenly introduced stricter rules during the controversy, including limiting who could access its image tools and restricting edits involving real people.

However, the issue may not be fully resolved. In a separate report, NBC News claims that Grok continues to generate explicit images of people without their permission. While the number of such images has reportedly dropped since January, some users are still able to bypass restrictions and create revealing images of women. Also read: OpenAI introduces GPT 5.4 Cyber, an AI model built for cybersecurity defence: All details