Italy’s privacy watchdog barks at Big Tech, gets raided for its own secrets

Italy’s formidable data protection authority – the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali – has long been the EU’s sharpest thorn in the side of American Big Tech giants, dishing out fines, bans, and stern warnings to the likes of Meta, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and even Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot over the risk of generating deepfake images from real content without the consent of featured individuals.

Just last week, it put Grok on notice for enabling non-consensual AI-generated imagery, prompting the usual grumbling from free-speech absolutists about overzealous European bureaucrats. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen personally reacted to the controversy over Grok generating non-consensual “undressed” or bikini-clad images of women and children, stating in a January 2026 interview with multiple outlets (including Corriere della Sera and others) that she was “appalled” that a tech platform enables users to “digitally undress women and children online,” calling it “unthinkable behavior” and emphasizing that “the harm caused by these deepfakes is very real,” while vowing the EU would not outsource child protection and consent to Silicon Valley.

But on 15 January the tables turned with delicious irony: Italian finance police (Guardia di Finanza) raided the Garante’s Rome headquarters as part of a criminal investigation into alleged corruption and embezzlement. Prosecutors are scrutinizing agency president Pasquale Stanzione and three fellow board members over claims of excessive spending, opaque decision-making, and possible corruption influencing enforcement actions – including, some reports suggest, the suspicious scrapping of a hefty fine against Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses after investigative journalism from Rai’s Report program raised red flags.

Rai’s Report program uncovered that the Garante’s internal departments had initially proposed a hefty fine of around 44 million euros against Meta for privacy violations related to its first-generation Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses (which raised concerns over unauthorized recording of users and bystanders), but after an alleged meeting between Garante board member Agostino Ghiglia and Meta’s Italian institutional relations manager Angelo Mazzetti the day before the final decision, the sanction was dramatically reduced – first to 17 million and then to just 12.5 million euros – sparking suspicions of opaque decision-making, potential influence peddling, and a multi-million-euro loss to the state treasury.

Here they are! The brand new Meta × Rayban glasses, this time with a heads-up display!!pic.twitter.com/Y6wJu6b4vA
— Tina Debove ᯅ (@TinaDebove) September 15, 2025

Stanzione, facing reporters outside the building, struck a remarkably calm tone: “I am absolutely serene,” he said, while dodging repeated questions about whether he’d step down. The opposition 5-Star Movement wasn’t so serene, blasting the probe as a blow to the authority’s credibility and demanding his immediate resignation.

Il presidente del Garante della privacy Pasquale Stanzione è indagatohttps://t.co/RWkwVvXgwd
— Il Post (@ilpost) January 15, 2026

The allegations stem from years of scrutiny into the Garante’s operations, amplified by media exposés on lavish expense claims and allegedly inconsistent sanctioning procedures. If proven, the scandal could dent one of Europe’s most aggressive privacy enforcers at a time when the bloc is ramping up AI regulation under the EU AI Act and GDPR.

As of the morning of 16 January, there is no public statement or reaction from Meta (or Mark Zuckerberg) regarding the corruption probe and headquarters raid on Italy’s Garante privacy authority.

As for Musk reacting? Despite the timing – coming hot on the heels of the Garante’s Grok warning – there’s no public comment from the X owner as of the time of publishing this article. No fiery posts, no memes, no “free speech” rants about Italian overreach.

Perhaps he’s too busy with other global dramas, or maybe he’s just savoring the schadenfreude in silence.

Caption: Meta’s Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses [@pitdesi on X]