Officials in Indonesia and Malaysia have announced temporary bans on access to xAI’s chatbot Grok, marking the strongest government actions so far in response to a surge of sexualized AI-generated content linked to the tool.
The moves follow widespread reports of Grok generating explicit imagery in response to user prompts on X. The content has at times shown real women and minors and, in some cases, included violent material. X and xAI operate under the same corporate structure.
Indonesian Govt Summons X Officials
In a statement shared Saturday with The Guardian and other outlets, Indonesia’s communications and digital minister Meutya Hafid said the government considers nonconsensual sexual deepfakes a serious violation of human rights, personal dignity, and digital safety. The ministry has also reportedly summoned X representatives to discuss the issue.
The New York Times reported that Malaysian authorities announced a similar block on Grok on Sunday, aligning with Indonesia’s position.
UK’s Response
Other governments have taken varied steps over the past week. India’s IT ministry ordered X to prevent Grok from generating obscene content. The European Commission directed the company to retain all documents related to Grok, a move that could precede a formal investigation.
In the United Kingdom, communications regulator Ofcom said it would conduct a rapid assessment to determine whether compliance issues warrant further investigation. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Ofcom has his full support to take action.
Apple and Google Urged to Remove X
In the United States, the Trump administration has not publicly addressed the issue. xAI chief executive Elon Musk is a major donor to President Donald Trump and previously led the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. Meanwhile, Democratic senators have urged Apple and Google to remove X from their app stores.
xAI’s Promised Feature Changes
xAI initially issued an apology through the Grok account, stating that a post had violated ethical standards and potentially US laws related to child sexual abuse material. The company later limited Grok’s image generation feature to paying X subscribers. That restriction did not apply to the standalone Grok app, which continued to allow image generation.
Responding to criticism about enforcement, Musk wrote on X that authorities were looking for “any excuse for censorship.”
