The Tamesis
Indonesia and Malaysia have joined a growing list of countries taking action against Elon Musk’s social media platform X, whose generative AI chatbot Grok has been producing lewd images of minors and women based on user prompts.
The two countries announced over the weekend that they would temporarily block Grok’s visits, with Indonesia becoming the first country in the world to impose such a ban.
“The government considers non-consensual sexual facilitation to be a serious violation of the human rights, dignity and safety of citizens in the digital space,” Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s communications and digital minister, said in a statement on Saturday.
Also on AF: EU wants commitment to lowest prices if Chinese EVs avoid tariffs
Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, has strict rules banning the sharing of content deemed obscene online.
The ministry also summoned Officer X to discuss the matter.
X “Failure to address risks”
Malaysia enacted the ban on Sunday. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that it would restrict access to Grok due to repeated misuse of the tool “to generate obscene, explicit, indecent, grossly offensive and non-consensually manipulated images, including content involving women and minors”.
The commission said it issued notices to X and xAI this month requiring the implementation of effective technical and audit safeguards, but the responses received relied largely on user-initiated reporting mechanisms and failed to address risks posed by the design and operation of AI tools.
“MCMC does not believe this is sufficient to prevent harm or ensure compliance with the law,” it said.
Access to Grok will be restricted until effective safeguards are in place, MCMC said, adding that it was open to working with the companies.
Malaysia, another Muslim-majority country, also has strict laws governing online content, including bans on obscene and pornographic material. It has imposed tighter scrutiny on internet companies in recent years in response to a rise in so-called harmful content.
Malaysian authorities are also considering Users under 16 years old are prohibited Access social media from.
global attention
Indonesia and Malaysia took action following global alarm over Grok allowing users to create and post pornographic images.
On Monday, Britain’s media regulator Investigate X To determine whether the obscene deepfakes produced by Grok breached its duty to protect people in the UK from potentially illegal content.
Last week, some U.S. senators also called on Apple and Google Remove X from their app store on the image.
Elsewhere, authorities in Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Sweden have condemned Grok’s activities, with some launching investigations into the platform and others saying they were considering legal action.
Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden is one of the victims Grok generates sexy images in response to user prompts.
Meanwhile, earlier this month, India’s IT Ministry also issued a formal notice to the local unit of X, saying that the platform failed to prevent Grok’s abuse and directed the company to remove explicit content.
X has limited actions
Despite growing concerns about Grok’s behavior, X’s response was limited at best. Earlier, Musk appeared to poke fun at the controversy, posting laughing-crying emojis in response to AI edits of bikini-clad celebrities, including himself.
Then, last week, the billionaire said on X that anyone using Grok to create illegal content would suffer the same consequences as uploading illegal content.
xAI, the Musk-led company behind Grok, said Thursday it will limit image generation and editing To paying subscribers Because it solves the problem of users on X making other people’s pornographic content.
The move appears to prevent Grok from generating and automatically posting such images in response to user posts or comments on social media sites.
But X users will still be able to create sexy images using the Grok tab, where people can interact directly with the chatbot within the social media platform and then post the images to X themselves.
The standalone Grok application runs separately from X and still allows users to generate images without a subscription.
In response to an email from Reuters seeking comment, xAI responded with what appeared to be an automated response: “Legacy media lies.” X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Weaponized Naked Tools”
Since late December, users have been able to ask Grok directly on X to edit photos of people, including removing their clothes and making them pose in sexy poses – often without their consent. Grok later responded to post the images on the social media platform.
Reuters investigation It was discovered that the chatbot’s image generation was used to create non-consensual images of women and children wearing minimal clothing.
Artificial intelligence programs that digitally remove women’s clothes (sometimes called “nude machines”) have been around for years, but so far they’ve been mostly limited to dark corners of the internet, such as niche websites or Telegram channels, and usually require a certain level of effort or payment.
X’s innovation – which allows users to strip women of their clothes by uploading a photo and typing “Hey @grok put her in a bikini” – lowers the barrier to entry.
Three experts who follow Company
“In August, we warned that xAI’s image generation was essentially a naked tool waiting to be weaponized,” said Tyler Johnston, executive director of the AI watchdog group The Midas Project, one of the letter’s signatories.
“That’s basically what happened.”
- Reuters, with additional editing and input by Vishakha Saxena
Also read:
China hopes to solve problems of addiction and self-harm caused by artificial intelligence imitating humans
Study finds artificial intelligence majors fail security tests, with Chinese companies worst performing
DeepSeek researchers are pessimistic about AI’s impact on humanity
TikTok comes under fire from US law for ‘harmful’ impact on children
TikTok fined $370 million by EU over children’s data breach
Big tech companies are doing “nothing” to combat rampant scams on social media
UN Secretary-General: Big tech companies chase profits from artificial intelligence while ignoring risks
Malaysia says it will ban children from using social media from 2026
The ‘Big Short’ is betting $1 billion that the ‘AI bubble’ will burst
The idea of artificial intelligence superintelligence is a ‘fantasy’ – US researchers
Senior analyst warns that artificial intelligence is ‘virtually useless’
