Indonesia and Malaysia Temporarily Block xAI’s Grok Over Sexual Deepfakes

Indonesia and Malaysia have temporarily blocked access to xAI’s chatbot Grok after the tool was linked to the spread of non-consensual, sexualized AI-generated images. The decision marks the strongest response so far from governments reacting to a surge of explicit deepfakes shared through Grok on the social media platform X, which is owned by the same company as xAI.

Officials said the chatbot had been used to generate sexualized images that often depicted real women, minors, and, in some cases, violent scenarios. Indonesia’s communications and digital minister, Meutya Hafid, said the government considers non-consensual sexual deepfakes a serious violation of human rights, personal dignity, and public safety in the digital space. The ministry has also reportedly summoned representatives from X to discuss the issue and the platform’s handling of harmful content.

Malaysia announced a similar block shortly after, according to reports, signaling growing concern in Southeast Asia over the misuse of generative AI tools. These actions follow a week of varied responses from governments around the world. In India, the IT ministry ordered X to take steps to stop Grok from producing obscene content. The European Commission has instructed the company to preserve all documents related to Grok, a move that could lead to a formal investigation.

In the United Kingdom, communications regulator Ofcom said it would carry out a rapid review to determine whether Grok may have breached existing regulations. Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly stated that Ofcom has his full support to take action if violations are found.

In contrast, the United States government has so far remained silent. This has drawn criticism from Democratic senators, who have urged Apple and Google to remove X from their app stores. The lack of response comes amid scrutiny of xAI CEO Elon Musk’s political influence, including his close ties to former President Donald Trump and his role in a previous administration initiative.

xAI initially reacted by posting an apology from the Grok account, admitting that certain content violated ethical standards and potentially U.S. laws related to child sexual abuse material. The company later limited Grok’s image-generation feature to paid X subscribers, though this restriction did not apply to the standalone Grok app, which continued to allow image generation.

Responding to criticism from the U.K., Musk accused governments of seeking excuses for censorship. The situation continues to raise questions about accountability, regulation, and the risks of rapidly deployed AI image-generation tools.