Indonesia Bans Grok After AI Generates Sexual Deepfakes Involving Children
Grok AI Controversy: Bad news has arrived from Indonesia for Elon Musk, who is trying to establish himself in the world of artificial intelligence. The Indonesian government has temporarily banned Grok due to the objectionable and pornographic images generated by it. The government believes this constitutes a serious violation of security and human rights.
On Saturday, Indonesian authorities blocked the use of the chatbot Grok, an AI developed by Elon Musk’s firm, xAI. The main reason for banning the use of this AI program is the production of sexual content in the form of deepfake images by the AI. It’s worth noting that through this banning act, Indonesia has made history as the first nation in the global world that has banned the use of the AI program entirely for reasons of security. The communications minister of the Indonesian government, Meutya Hafid, made a statement regarding the matter of sexual deepfakes.
There have been concerns about Grok not only in Indonesia but also in other parts of the world from Europe to Asia. Regulators in some countries have even launched investigations into the app's sexually explicit and sensitive content. Amidst these concerns, Indonesia has become the first country to take the most drastic step, directly blocking access. Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population, has very strict laws regarding pornography on the internet.
xAI recently acknowledged that security flaws in Grok resulted in outputs containing sexually explicit and objectionable content involving children. Following this, the company decided to limit the image generation and editing feature to paid users only.
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Faced by the growing controversy, Musk's startup, xAI, has limited the image generation and editing feature to paid subscribers only. The company is working to address the security flaws that led to outputs such as the objectionable images of children. Elon Musk clarified on X that anyone using Grok to create illegal content will face the same consequences as uploading illegal content.
On January 2, 2026, the Indian government's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an ultimatum to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to remove pornographic content from the platform within 72 hours. The government expressed serious concern over Grok's security failure, citing it as a violation of Indian IT regulations.
After intense pressure, on January 11, 2026, X admitted its mistake and assured the Indian government that it would comply with Indian laws. Following this controversy, X confirmed blocking approximately 3,500 posts and deleting over 600 accounts spreading pornographic content. Furthermore, it promised to strengthen its content moderation system to prevent such content in the future. Let us tell you that Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi had raised this issue before the IT Minister, after which the government started taking strict action.
