Indonesia has temporarily blocked access to xAI’s Grok chatbot, escalating the global backlash against AI tools that generate non‑consensual sexual imagery.
The move targets Grok as it appears on X, the social network owned by Elon Musk and housed in the same corporate structure as xAI. Indonesian officials say the chatbot has been used to produce sexualized, AI‑generated images of real women and minors, including depictions of assault and abuse, which then spread across X.
Communications and digital minister Meutya Hafid called the practice of creating non‑consensual sexual deepfakes a “serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space,” according to a statement shared with multiple outlets. The ministry has also summoned X representatives for talks.
A tough line from Jakarta
Indonesia’s step is among the most aggressive responses any government has taken so far against Grok. Rather than just demanding new safeguards, the country has cut off access while it presses X and xAI for changes.
The decision lands at a moment when regulators worldwide are scrambling to react to a wave of AI‑generated sexual content, especially material involving minors and imagery that suggests assault. Grok is far from the only tool capable of generating these images, but the fact that it is tightly integrated into a major social network — and controlled by a single company — makes it an easier and more visible target for regulators.
Other governments pile on
Indonesia is not alone. Over the past week, officials on at least three continents have publicly turned up the pressure on Musk’s AI operation:
- India: The IT ministry has ordered xAI to take steps to prevent Grok from generating obscene content.
- European Union: The European Commission has told the company to preserve all documents related to Grok. The order doesn’t automatically trigger penalties, but it clearly lays the groundwork for a potential investigation under the EU’s digital and AI rules.
- United Kingdom: Communications regulator Ofcom said it will “undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation.” Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the regulator, saying Ofcom has his “full support to take action.”
In the United States, the federal response looks very different. The Trump administration has so far stayed silent, even as Grok’s image‑generation has triggered outrage abroad. Musk is a major donor to Donald Trump and last year led the administration’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency, a political backdrop that makes Washington’s quiet stance stand out.
On Capitol Hill, though, pressure is building from the other side of the aisle: Democratic senators have publicly urged Apple and Google to remove X from their app stores over Grok’s behavior and the spread of sexualized AI images on the platform.
xAI’s partial climbdown
As criticism mounted, xAI initially responded via a post from the Grok account itself, written in the first person. The statement acknowledged that one of its image posts “violated ethical standards and potentially US laws” around child sexual abuse material.
The company then moved to restrict AI image generation on X to paying subscribers. But that change applied only to the feature embedded in X — not to the standalone Grok app, which still allowed anyone to generate images.
That gap undermined the company’s claim that it was meaningfully tightening controls and gave regulators more ammunition to argue that Musk’s companies were reacting only at the margins.
Musk denounces ‘censorship’
When one X user questioned why the U.K. government was not taking similar action against other AI image generators, Musk replied: “They want any excuse for censorship.”
The comment sums up the broader clash now emerging between governments that frame non‑consensual sexual deepfakes as a human‑rights and safety crisis, and a platform owner who has repeatedly cast moderation and legal constraints as censorship.
What Indonesia’s ban signals
Indonesia’s temporary block puts Grok — and by extension X — on notice in a huge, fast‑growing digital market. It also sends a message to other governments that outright blocking access is now on the table when AI systems generate sexualized deepfakes of women and minors.
For Musk’s companies, three risks are converging:
- Regulatory investigations in the EU, U.K. and possibly elsewhere.
- Platform risk, if Apple and Google decide to act on calls to pull X from their app stores.
- Precedent risk, as Indonesia’s move encourages other countries to reach for the kill‑switch rather than waiting for voluntary fixes.
Grok’s ability to crank out photorealistic images was supposed to be a marquee feature that kept users inside Musk’s ecosystem. Instead, it has turned into a test case for how far governments are willing to go when AI‑generated sexual abuse images spill into the mainstream.
