Malaysia and Indonesia block Musk’s Grok over sexually explicit deepfakes
Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok, citing concerns that it was being misused to create and spread sexually explicit deepfake images, including non-consensual content involving women.
Malaysia and Indonesia have taken the unprecedented step of blocking access to Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot, developed by his xAI company and offered through the social media platform X. Officials in both Southeast Asian nations said the decision was driven by repeated misuse of Grok to produce sexually explicit, pornographic and non-consensual deepfake images, including depictions involving women and minors — harms they indicated violated human rights, dignity and digital safety.
In Indonesia, the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs temporarily barred access after investigations found that existing safeguards were inadequate to prevent creation and distribution of manipulated pornographic content based on real individuals’ photos without their consent. Malaysia’s communications regulator followed with its own temporary restriction, stating that repeated misuse of the tool to generate obscene and non-consensual imagery justified preventive action until stronger protective measures are implemented.
Authorities in both countries criticized Grok’s reliance on user reporting as its primary safety mechanism and said access would remain blocked until effective safeguards are demonstrated. The move comes amid rising global scrutiny of generative AI systems and deepfake technologies, with regulators in other regions — including the EU, UK, India and France — also urging stricter content moderation and legal oversight.
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