Photo: EPA
Indonesia and Malaysia have restricted access to Grok, the artificial intelligence system developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after cases in which the tool was used to generate sexual content featuring images of women and children. The moves mark the first national-level bans targeting Grok, Bloomberg reports.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Technologies imposed a temporary ban on January 10, saying the measure was necessary to protect women, children and the wider public from AI-generated fake pornographic content. The regulator has requested immediate explanations from X regarding how the tool operates.
“The government considers non-consensual sexual deepfakes a serious violation of human rights, dignity and national security in the digital space,” said Minister of Communication and Digital Technologies Meutya Hafid.
Malaysia’s internet regulator announced similar restrictions on January 11. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said access to Grok would only be restored once effective safeguards are put in place. The regulator also sent formal notices to X and xAI, stating that the companies’ response so far did not fully address the risks of generating content that could violate Malaysian law.
The decisions in Southeast Asia come amid steps already taken by xAI itself. On Friday, January 9, the company limited Grok’s image-generation features for most X users following criticism over the creation of explicit images of women and children. Image creation and editing are now available only via paid subscriptions, whereas they were previously free with daily usage limits. Several regulators, including in the United Kingdom, have said these measures are insufficient.
Concerns about Grok have also been raised in India. According to Press Trust of India, authorities said X assured the government it would comply with local laws, after which about 3,500 pieces of content were blocked and more than 600 accounts were removed.
After the ban in Indonesia, Grok itself responded with a post on X: “Sorry for the inconvenience. We’re working to resolve this issue,” adding advice to use a VPN to access the tool.
