Indonesia has temporarily blocked X's AI chatbot Grok. The Southeast Asian country took action against Elon Musk-owned Grok on charges of 'digital violence'. Indonesia has become the first country in the world to block Grok. This information has been learned from a Reuters news agency report. According to that report, many online users were allegedly using Grok to create nude images of women and in some cases children without consent. Indonesia took action following this incident.
Regarding blocking Grok, Indonesia's Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid said, 'Creating sexual deepfakes without consent is a serious violation of human rights, personal dignity and citizens' safety in the digital space.' The minister further stated that the trend of using Grok to create sexually suggestive images is being viewed as 'digital violence'.
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Indonesian news media Antara News reported that this decision has been taken to protect women, children and the general public from the mental and social harm of AI-generated indecent content.
Government summons X officials
According to Reuters' report, alongside blocking Grok, the Indonesian government has also summoned X officials. Elon Musk's company will have to explain how Grok's current configuration is enabling such misuse. They will also have to provide clear details about what technical measures are being taken to prevent future misuse.
For now, Grok remains temporarily suspended in Indonesia. The Indonesian government will consider whether this artificial intelligence chatbot will be launched in the country in the future after analyzing how strictly content filtering and AI-related policies are being implemented.
Allegations of using Grok to create various types of indecent and sexually suggestive images and videos on social media have poured in from various quarters. Grok is allegedly instantly doing work like completely removing clothes from any man or woman in an image and presenting them as nude. Alongside this, images of removing all clothes and putting on bikinis have flooded the X platform. Multiple countries around the world have already raised objections about such activities by Grok. Compared to AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini, the maximum allegations are against Grok.
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Amid this controversy, a group of US senators had earlier written to Apple and Google demanding the temporary removal of X and Grok apps from their app stores. The senators' allegation was that Grok was enabling the creation of indecent images of women and children without consent. The senators claimed such activities are extremely concerning and illegal. India, the European Union and Malaysia have also expressed concern about this issue and started investigations.
In the context of all these allegations, Elon Musk announced last week that legal action would be taken against anyone who creates illegal content using Grok. Recently, an X user wrote in a post, 'What's wrong if Grok puts a bikini on someone? There are millions of such apps. This is not a new problem. Rather, this is a new tool for this work. If any user does this without consent, then they should be punished, not the platform.' Sharing this post on Saturday, Elon Musk wrote, 'Exactly'. It was in this context that Indonesia took action against Grok.
