Malaysia and Indonesia have banned Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot for generating non-consensual explicit deepfakes.
The X platform tool, which creates images from text prompts, has been misused to depict real people—especially women and children—in sexually provocative poses.
Indonesia imposed a temporary nationwide block over the weekend, followed by Malaysia’s communications regulator on Sunday. The latter cited repeated misuse despite earlier warnings to X, criticising the firm’s focus on user reports rather than design flaws.
Indonesia’s Communications Minister Meutya Hafid declared on Instagram: “Using Grok to produce sexually explicit content is a violation of human rights, dignity and online safety.” Her ministry demanded explanations from X, aligning with prior bans on sites like OnlyFans.
In Britain, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall backs curbs on X for safety breaches, with Ofcom set to rule soon. Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the images “disgraceful” and “disgusting.”
Musk previously accused critics of seeking “any excuse for censorship.”