Indonesia Becomes First Country to Block Musk’s Grok Over Sexualized AI Images

Indonesia temporarily blocked access to Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot built by Elon Musk’s xAI, on Saturday, becoming the first country to deny access to the tool entirely, according to CBS News and NBC News. The step followed reports that Grok’s image feature could be used to create sexualized images of real people, including children, from simple text prompts.

Indonesia’s Communications and Digital Affairs Minister, Meutya Hafid, said the government “temporarily blocked access to the Grok application” to protect women, children and the public, CBS reported. She described non-consensual sexual deepfakes as “a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens,” language NBC also carried. The ministry summoned X officials to discuss the matter, NBC reported.

xAI, which developed Grok and is closely tied to the social platform X, had said earlier in the week that it was limiting image generation and editing to paying subscribers as an attempt to fix lapses in safeguards that allowed sexualized outputs, including depictions of scantily clad children, according to NBC’s account of a Reuters report. Critics in Europe argued that putting the feature behind a paywall fails to address explicit deepfakes, CBS reported.

When asked for comment, xAI sent both NBC and CBS what appeared to be an automated reply: “Legacy Media Lies.” X did not immediately respond to NBC’s request for comment. CBS noted that the Grok account on X remained active and was replying to queries, including in Bahasa Indonesia. Musk said last week that anyone using Grok to create illegal content would face the same consequences as if they had uploaded illegal content, according to both reports.

The pressure is not limited to Southeast Asia. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the images “disgraceful” and “unlawful” and said “all options” are on the table, including a possible ban of Grok in Britain, CBS reported. In the United States, the criticism has reached the Republican side of the aisle: Sen. Ted Cruz said the images violate the Take It Down Act, a federal law on non-consensual intimate imagery, and X’s own terms, and called for takedowns and guardrails, CBS reported. He said he was encouraged by steps X had taken to remove unlawful images.

NBC noted that Indonesia, the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, has strict rules banning the online sharing of content deemed obscene. In the United States, the response so far has come from lawmakers, including Cruz, who cited an existing federal law rather than a block on the service.

The outcome of this episode will turn on whether xAI’s changes persuade regulators that its safeguards work. Neither report said when Indonesia’s block might be lifted, and CBS described the suspension as temporary.