Indonesia blocked access to Grok after an investigation into the artificial intelligence system’s generation of sexual content.
The Communications and Digital Affairs Ministry is imposing a temporary ban on Grok “to protect women, children, and the entire community from the risk of fake pornographic content generated using artificial intelligence technology,” according to a statement issued on Saturday. The ministry has asked platform X to immediately provide clarification regarding the matter, it said.
“The government views non-consensual deepfake sexual practices as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and national security in the digital space,” Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said in the statement.
Indonesia’s move came as Elon Musk’s firm xAI, which owns Grok, decided on Friday to restrict the image-generation feature for most users on the X social media platform after the AI tool drew widespread condemnation for generating undressed images of women and children. Users now need a paid subscription to generate and edit images. Those features were initially introduced on X for free with daily limits.
The standalone Grok app, which operates separately from the social network, still allows users to generate pictures without subscribing.
“Sorry for the inconvenience,” Grok posted on the X platform about the Indonesian block. “We are working to resolve this issue.”
