India orders Musk’s X to repair Grok over ‘obscene’ AI content

India has ordered Elon Musk’s X to make immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after users and lawmakers reported the generation of “obscene” content, including AI-altered images of women created using the tool.

On Friday, India’s IT ministry issued an order directing Musk’s The ministry also gave the social media platform 72 hours to submit an action report detailing steps taken to prevent the hosting or dissemination of content deemed “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic or otherwise prohibited by law.”

The order, reviewed by TechCrunch, warned that failure to comply could jeopardize X’s “safe harbor” protections — legal immunity from liability for user-generated content under Indian law.

India’s move follows concerns raised by users who shared examples of Grok being tricked into altering images of individuals – mostly women – to make them appear in bikinis, sparking a backlash. official complaint by Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi. Furthermore, recent reports have pointed to cases in which the AI ​​chatbot generated sexualized images involving minorsa problem recognized earlier Friday was caused by lapses in safeguards. These images were later deleted.

However, images generated using Grok that made women appear to be wearing bikinis through AI modification remained accessible on X at the time of publication, TechCrunch found.

The latest order comes days after India’s IT ministry issued a broader advisory, also reviewed by TechCrunch, to social media platforms on Monday, reminding them that compliance with local laws governing obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for maintaining legal immunity from liability for user-generated material. The advisory urges companies to strengthen their internal safeguards and warns that failure to do so could result in legal action under India’s information technology and criminal laws.

“It is reminded that failure to comply with the above requirements must be taken seriously and may result in strict legal consequences against your platform, its responsible managers and platform users who violate the law, without further notice,” the order warns.

The Indian government said failure to comply could result in prosecution of X under the Indian Information Technology Act and criminal laws.

India, one of the world’s largest digital markets, has become a crucial test case for how far governments are willing to go to hold platforms accountable for AI-generated content. Any tightening of controls in the country could impact global technology companies operating in multiple jurisdictions.

This order comes as Musk’s X continues to question aspects of the Indian system. content regulation rules in courtarguing that the federal government’s takedown powers risk being excessive, even though the platform has complied with the majority of blocking guidelines. At the same time, Grok has been increasingly used by X users since real-time fact checking and commentary on current events, making its results more visible – and more politically sensitive – than those of standalone AI tools.

X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Indian government order.