The Hamburg Regional Court has, by way of a preliminary injunction, prohibited xAI from disseminating this false statement about Compact via the X account “@grok”.
The court found that it had international jurisdiction because the post in question was a German-language post on a German-language X account, written in German, directed at German users, and targeted against the plaintiff, a German association (demonstrating a clear domestic focus). The court did not rely on the fact that the X social media and the grok service is generally available in Germany but rather focused on the aspects regarding the specific post.
The court prohibited the post because it found that it infrienged Campact’s personality rights. Since the statement was published, the court could apply traditional standards of German press/media law and false statement law. The post was deemed a false statement of fact, which in this context was also defamatory. The operator of Grok (xAI) had the burden of proof to demonstrate the truth of the statement. However, xAI did not make any submission in this respect.
According to the court, the fact the statement was created by AI changes nothing on the legal outcome. There are not indications that users of the “X” platform would not perceive statements from the Grok account to be factual claims simply because the posts were created by an AI chatbot. On the contrary, the court found that the AI chatbot itself pointed out that its statements were based on facts, meaning that users will actually attribute an increased degree of factual authority to the AI. The court found that xAI is liable as is operates the Grok account on X and since by presenting the statement on the account it has adopted and appropriated the statements.