Malaysia, Indonesia block Grok AI chatbot on X over sexually explicit content
Both governments announced the restrictions over the weekend, citing concerns about non-consensual and explicit content circulating online. This is the first time that chat robots have been banned by a government despite regulators in other countries warning of the need for stricter controls.
Amid growing outrage over tools that generate sexually explicit images of real persons, Indonesia and Malaysia have moved to block access to Grok, an AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s XAI.
Both governments announced the restrictions over the weekend, citing concerns about non-consensual and explicit content circulating online. This is the first time that chat robots have been banned by a government despite regulators in other countries warning of the need for stricter controls.
Indonesia said on Saturday it had temporarily blocked access to Grok, while Malaysia made a similar announcement on Sunday. Officials in both countries said the decision came after explicit, AI-generated images were widely circulated on Musk-owned social media platform X, where users can prompt Grok to create images of real persons.
“The government considers the practice of sexual deepfakes without consent to be a serious violation of citizens’ human rights, dignity and security in the digital sphere,” Meutya Hafid, Indonesia’s minister of communications and digital affairs, said in a statement. new York Times,
In recent weeks, sexually explicit images generated by Grok have spread rapidly throughout Brazil. Concerns were further heightened when the AI tool went viral for its tendency to remove clothes, with many X users asking Grok to digitally remove clothing from photos, in some cases creating erotic deepfakes involving minors.
Unlike many other AI platforms, Grok does not have strong preventative initiatives against creating images of real people.
Prior ban on digital platforms
Indonesia has a history of harsh punishment regarding online pornography. The country has previously banned websites like Pornhub and OnlyFans. In 2018, it temporarily blocked access to TikTok due to perceived danger to children because some videos on the platform contained explicit sexual content.
Malaysia has also tightened scrutiny of online platforms, with regulators there announcing plans to ban children under 16 from social media, at least partly in response to high-profile cases of online bullying linked to the deaths of minors.
Outrage over Grok’s image-making has spread far beyond Southeast Asia. Keir Starmer has criticized the platform, while US senators Ron Wyden, Ed Markey and Ben Ray Luján sent a letter last week urging Apple and Google to remove Grok from their app stores.
In response, last week, X restricted Grok’s image-generation features to paid customers.