India has ordered Elon Musk’s
India’s IT Ministry on Friday issued an order directing Musk’s X to take remedial action against Grok, including restricting it from producing content containing “nudity, sexual content, sexually explicit content, or otherwise unlawful” content. The ministry also gave social media platforms 72 hours to submit action reports detailing the steps they have taken to prevent the hosting or distribution of content deemed “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or prohibited by law.”
The order, seen by TechCrunch, warns that failure to comply could jeopardize Company X’s “safe harbor” protections, or legal immunity for user-generated content under Indian law.
India’s move followed concerns raised by users who shared instances of Grok prompting people to alter images of individuals, mostly women, to appear as if they were wearing bikinis, and was formally complained by Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi. Separately, there have been recent reports of AI chatbots generating sexually explicit images of minors, and Company X admitted early Friday that the issue was due to a lack of safety measures. These images were later removed.
However, TechCrunch found that an AI-altered image generated using Grok that appeared to show a woman wearing a bikini remained accessible on X at the time of publication.
This latest order comes days after India’s IT Ministry issued a sweeping advisory on Monday to social media platforms, which was also reviewed by TechCrunch, reminding them that compliance with local laws governing obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for maintaining legal immunity for user-generated material. The advisory urged companies to strengthen internal security measures and warned that failure to do so could lead to legal action under India’s IT and Penal Code.
“We reiterate that any violation of the above requirements shall be considered seriously and may, without further notice, result in severe legal consequences for the platform, its responsible officers, and the users on the platform who violate the law,” the order warns.
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The Indian government said any violation could lead to action against X under India’s IT Act and Penal Code.
India, one of the world’s largest digital markets, has emerged as a key test case for the extent to which governments are willing to hold onto platforms responsible for AI-generated content. An increased domestic crackdown could have a ripple effect on global technology companies that operate across multiple jurisdictions.
The order comes as Mr. Musk’s Mr. At the same time, Grok is increasingly used by X users for real-time fact-checking and commentary on news events, making its output more visible and politically sensitive than standalone AI tools.
X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Indian government’s order.
