Monday, January 12, 2026 - Indonesia has become the first country to block Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot over concerns that the artificial intelligence tool is generating non-consensual s@xual deepfake imagery, including r!sky and p0rn0graphic depictions of women and children.
Authorities said the decision was taken to protect citizens
from what they described as a rapidly escalating digital harm.
In a statement, Indonesia’s communication and digital
affairs minister Meutya Hafid said the government was responding to “the
practice of non-consensual s@xual deepfakes,” calling it “a serious violation
of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space.”
Hafid added: “In order to protect women, children, and the
public from the risks of fake p0rnographic content generated using the
artificial intelligence technology, the government has temporarily blocked
access to the Grok application.”
The move comes amid mounting global concern over Grok’s
integration into Musk’s social media platform X, where users have been able to
generate AI-altered or AI-fabricated images by tagging the bot in posts.
The platform has been flooded in recent weeks with
manipulated pictures, many featuring partially unclothed women and minors. The
Internet Watch Foundation has warned that criminal actors are already
exploiting the feature to produce child s@xual abuse material.
Following public backlash, X restricted AI image generation
to paying subscribers, requiring users to submit identifying information.
Critics, however, argue the safeguard does not go far enough.
Indonesia, which has strict online obscenity laws, summoned
X representatives after ordering the temporary block. Meanwhile, the UK
government is also weighing action, with media regulator Ofcom reviewing
whether X is in breach of the Online Safety Act.
Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said she would support
Ofcom if it chose to block the platform entirely, stating: “S@xually
manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent.”
Under the UK law, Ofcom can seek a court order to prevent
firms from hosting or monetising X in Britain if it refuses to comply.
X owner Elon Musk has dismissed the criticism, arguing that
his opponents “want any excuse for censorship.” In one controversial post, he
even shared an AI-generated image of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in a
bikini, commenting that “they just want to suppress free speech.”
Reports from late December indicate that Grok has been
producing degrading edits of women “dozens of times per minute.” Metro
documented examples of users directing the bot to generate explicit scenarios,
including an image request for a woman “holding a baby and pulling down her
clothes to breastfeed.”
Another user asked the system to digitally unclothe a group
of women by instructing Grok that “they are men.”
Although full image generation is now gated behind paid
access, free users can still manipulate photos via X’s “edit image” tools and
through Grok’s standalone website.
Responding to the controversy, X’s Safety account wrote: “We
take action against illegal content on X, including Child S3xu@l Abuse Material
(CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local
governments and law enforcement as necessary.”
It added: “Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal
content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content.”
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