Indonesia has temporarily blocked access to Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk-backed startup xAI, citing concerns over the generation of sexualised and non-consensual images.
The move follows growing global scrutiny of Grok’s image generation features, which regulators in several countries say have been used to create sexualised deepfake images of women and underage girls. Governments including those of India, Germany, France and Malaysia have launched inquiries or taken regulatory action against the tool.
Indonesia’s Communications and Digital Minister, Meutya Hafid, said the government views non-consensual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, personal dignity and digital security.
While other countries have opened investigations into Grok, Indonesia is the first to impose an outright block on the chatbot, according to media reports. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has reported that the United Kingdom is also considering restrictions on Musk’s social media platform X over alleged failures to comply with online safety laws.
Musk has previously said that X would take action against users who prompt Grok to generate illegal content, including banning offending accounts. However, India’s government said it was not satisfied with xAI’s response and is considering further action.
On January 8, Musk announced that Grok’s image generation and editing features would be restricted to paid subscribers as the company works to address safeguards that allowed the creation of sexualised images.
X has offered to provide Indian authorities with a detailed demonstration of how Grok operates and to explain its content moderation systems, according to Reuters.
