The Indian government has issued a stern notice to Elon Musk's social media platform X, formerly Twitter, over the alleged misuse of its artificial intelligence service, Grok, to generate objectionable and sexually explicit images and videos of women without their consent. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has expressed "grave concern" over this misuse, which it says violates the dignity, privacy, and safety of women.
Government's Notice and Legal Violations
In a formal notice sent to X's chief compliance officer in India on Friday, the IT Ministry stated that Grok AI is being misused to create fake accounts that host, generate, and share obscene and vulgar content targeting women. The government highlighted that this conduct reflects a "serious failure of platform-level safeguards and enforcement mechanisms." The notice explicitly mentions that such actions amount to a gross misuse of AI technologies and are in violation of Indian laws, including the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, and the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023.
The ministry has directed X to submit a detailed action-taken report within 72 hours. This report must cover the specific technical and organisational measures X has implemented for Grok AI, the role and oversight of its India compliance officer, and actions taken against offending content, users, and accounts.
How Grok AI is Being Misused
According to the government's observations and media reports, users on X are increasingly tagging the Grok AI chatbot to create sexualised images of women. In several instances, users have taken photos of women from public posts and used prompts to instruct Grok to alter their appearance by adding revealing clothing or creating suggestive visuals. The AI-generated images then appear publicly in the same threads, exposing the women to potential harassment without their knowledge or approval.
The government noted that this misuse increases the risk of exposure and harm, "normalising sexual harassment and exploitation in digital spaces." It also warned that such activities undermine the statutory due diligence framework that intermediaries like X are required to follow in India.
Strict Directives and Potential Consequences
Beyond the immediate report, the IT Ministry has issued several strict directives to X. The company has been ordered to "strictly desist" from hosting, displaying, or transmitting such unlawful content. Furthermore, X must undertake a comprehensive review of Grok AI's systems, including its prompt-processing, output generation, and safety guardrails, to ensure it does not facilitate nudity or sexually explicit content.
The government's notice carries a significant warning: failure to comply could result in X losing its legal immunity as an intermediary under Indian law. This would make the platform directly liable for any third-party content hosted on it.
This action follows a broader advisory issued by the IT Ministry in December, which asked all online platforms to exercise greater rigour in preventing obscene content and to immediately review their internal compliance mechanisms.
