Malaysia and Indonesia become first countries to block Grok

The moves reflect growing concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse.

The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through social media platform X, has been criticised for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.

Regulators in Malaysia and Indonesia said existing controls were not preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content, particularly involving women and minors.

Indonesia’s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.

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“The government sees non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,” Indonesia’s communication and digital affairs minister Meutya Hafid said.

The ministry said the measure was intended to protect women, children and the broader community from fake pornographic content generated using AI.

Initial findings showed that Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement.

He said such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent, causing psychological, social and reputational harm.

In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered a temporary restriction on Grok on Sunday after what it said was “repeated misuse” of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit and non-consensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.

The regulator said notices issued this month to X Corp and xAI demanding stronger safeguards drew responses that relied mainly on user reporting mechanisms.

“The restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,” it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.

Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. Users can ask it questions on the social media platform and tag posts they have directly created or replies to posts from other users.

Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called “spicy mode” that can generate adult content.

The restrictions come amid mounting scrutiny of Grok elsewhere, including in the European Union, the UK, India and France.

Last week Grok limited image generation and editing to paying users following global backlash over sexualised deepfakes of people, but critics say it did not fully address the problem.

Mr Musk has said critics of X “want any excuse for censorship”, pointing to claims other AI programmes created non-sexualised images of women in bikinis.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall said she would back regulator Ofcom if it decided to effectively block X if it failed to comply with UK laws, saying: “Sexually manipulating images of women and children is despicable and abhorrent.”