After MeitY notice, X takes down obscene Grok content, deletes 600 accounts

Social media platform X has acknowledged lapses in the misuse of its artificial intelligence tool Grok and has assured the Government of India that it will operate in full compliance with Indian laws, government sources said.

The development follows concerns raised by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) over the circulation of obscene and sexually explicit content generated using Grok, an AI-based service integrated on X.

According to government sources, the platform has blocked around 3,500 pieces of content and deleted more than 600 accounts found to be in violation of Indian laws. X has also conveyed to authorities that it will not allow obscene imagery on its platform going forward and has initiated corrective measures.

“X has accepted its mistake and said it will work as per the laws of India,” government sources said, adding that the company has acknowledged the concerns flagged by the Ministry and taken steps to strengthen safeguards on the platform.

The action comes after MeitY issued a letter to X on January 2, granting the platform 72 hours to comply with statutory obligations under Indian law. In its communication, the Ministry raised serious concerns over the misuse of Grok AI to generate and circulate obscene, vulgar and sexually explicit images and videos, particularly targeting women, through prompts, image manipulation and synthetic outputs.

X, owned by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has seen a surge in user activity in recent days after Grok went viral for a so-called bikini trend, which also drove increased usage of the chatbot for a range of other queries and contextual information.

MeitY said that such content violates provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The Ministry added that the circulation of such material undermines the dignity, privacy and safety of women and children and points to deficiencies in platform-level safeguards.

The Ministry reminded X that compliance with the IT Act and the IT Rules, 2021 is mandatory for significant social media intermediaries. It warned that failure to comply could result in the loss of safe harbour protection under Section 79 of the IT Act, in addition to further legal action under applicable laws.

MeitY had directed X to conduct a comprehensive technical and governance-level review of Grok, strictly enforce its user policies, remove unlawful content without delay and submit an Action Taken Report within the stipulated timeline.

Government sources said X has now assured authorities that it has taken down the flagged content and put in place enhanced measures to prevent the generation and dissemination of obscene content on the platform.