Governments in Southeast Asia and India took strict measures against the social media platform X after a worldwide outcry over Grok AI. Indonesian and Malaysian authorities have banned access to this tool. Indian regulators issued directives to delete obscene material, indicating a significant escalation of the battle against AI-generated images that are not consented to.
This controversy is a result of the mishandling of Grok by Elon Musk’s xAI company. Deepfakes by Grok AI became an issue after users started using the image-generation capabilities of the tool to produce sexually explicit material. Users started a viral trend on the platform where they asked the AI to remove clothes from photos of minors and women without consent. The lack of safety safeguards on the platform has been criticized by global authorities, who claim that it poses a danger to digital security.
Indonesia and Malaysia suspended their access to Grok AI in a move designed to stop the spreading of deepfakes. Both nations blamed the failure of the platform to stop the distribution and creation of sexual images that are not consented to. The authorities stated that misuse of Grok was in violation of national pornographic laws and undermined the public’s trust, especially when it came to protecting women and children.
X received a notice from the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology after numerous complaints were made about illegal content related to Grok AI deepfakes. The Indian government required the removal of this material immediately and a report on compliance within 72 hours. The officials highlighted the fact that creating derogatory or explicit images was a breach of safeguards at the platform level. X has acknowledged this issue and deleted over 600 accounts, blocking around 3,500 posts, to prevent the spreading of obscene images.
Not only in Asia is there a backlash against Grok AI. The UK and Europe have also condemned this tool for spreading sexualised AI images. X, under increasing pressure from around the world, has restricted Grok’s editing and image-generation features only to paid users. The company says this will help reduce abuse, but critics say that putting the tool behind a paywall doesn’t address its fundamental flaws and the harm it causes to users.
