The Ministry of Information Technology of India has recently issued an emergency ban on social media X, under the banner of Elon Mask, to make an immediate technical overhaul of the platform chat robot Grok. A large number of users and parliamentarians have previously reported the production of “pornography” by Grok, including the use of AI technology to manipulate images of women to produce indecent content.
According to government documents received by Reuters, the Ministry of Information Technology of India issued a Friday directive requiring X to impose content restrictions on Grok to prevent it from producing “naked, pornographic, sexual or other unlawful material”. The Government also requested the Platform to submit a overhaul report within 72 hours, detailing the programme to prevent the hosting or dissemination of “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexual or otherwise prohibited by law”. The document warns that, in the event of non-compliance, the X Platform may lose the immunity from the “safe haven principle” provided by Indian law for the generation of content for users. The order followed a formal complaint by Indian Member of Parliament Priyanka Chatwedi. Priyanka Chatuvedi pointed out that there was a user-inducing Grok to distort the image of the person in the swimsuit, most of the victims being women. Also, according to recent reports, Grok had produced sexualized images of minors, and platform X had admitted on Friday that it was due to the failure of safety protection mechanisms and that the photographs had been removed. However, images of swimsuits produced by AI can still be seen on X.
Prior to the ban, the Ministry of Information Technology of India had issued a circular to all social media platforms on Monday, emphasizing that compliance with the local law on the regulation of pornographic content was a prerequisite for obtaining an exemption from legal liability for user content and urging enterprises to strengthen their internal protection, otherwise they might face accountability under the Information Technology Act and the Penal Code. The Government document makes a strict order: “Reaffirms once again that, if the above-mentioned requirements are not met, the Platform and its officials, and the offending users, will face severe legal consequences and will not be notified”. As one of the largest global digital markets, India is becoming a key test for how Governments can hold AI ‘ s content-generation platform accountable, and its regulatory movement may have radiological effects on multinational technology companies. At the time of the Order ‘ s issuance, Platform X was still contesting some of the provisions of India ‘ s content regulations in court, questioning the risk that the federal Government ‘ s demarches would exceed its authority, even though it had implemented most of the content closure directives. It is noteworthy that, as X users increasingly use Grok for current and news reviews, their output is more visible and politically sensitive than the independent AI tool.
