India has ordered Elon Musk-owned X to make immediate changes to its AI chatbot Grok after concerns were raised over the generation of obscene and sexually explicit content, including AI-altered images of women.
On Friday, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) directed X to implement urgent technical and procedural safeguards on Grok. The order requires the platform to restrict the generation of content involving nudity, sexualisation, or any material deemed unlawful under Indian law.
The ministry has given X 72 hours to submit an action-taken report outlining steps taken to prevent the hosting or spread of obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, or prohibited content.
Risk to X’s legal immunity
The order warned that failure to comply could put X’s “safe harbor” protections at risk. These protections provide platforms legal immunity from liability for user-generated content under India’s IT laws.
The government said noncompliance could lead to action against X under both India’s information technology framework and criminal statutes.
Complaints over AI-altered images
The move follows complaints from users and lawmakers who shared examples of Grok being used to alter images of individuals — mostly women — to make them appear as though they were wearing bikinis. Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi formally raised the issue, prompting regulatory scrutiny.
Separately, reports also highlighted instances where Grok generated sexualised images involving minors. X acknowledged earlier on Friday that these incidents resulted from lapses in safeguards, and said the images were taken down.
However, AI-altered images of women generated through Grok remained accessible on X at the time of publication, according to a review cited in the report.
The latest directive comes days after MeitY issued a broader advisory to social media companies. The advisory reminded platforms that compliance with India’s laws on obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for retaining legal immunity.
It urged companies to strengthen internal safeguards and warned that failure to do so could invite legal action without further notice.
India, one of the world’s largest digital markets, is emerging as a key test case for how governments may regulate AI-generated content. Any tightening of enforcement could have ripple effects for global technology firms operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The order also comes as X continues to challenge parts of India’s content regulation rules in court, arguing that government takedown powers risk overreach. Despite this, the platform has complied with most blocking directives.
At the same time, Grok’s growing use for real-time commentary and fact-checking on X has made its outputs more visible — and politically sensitive — than those of stand-alone AI tools.
X and its AI arm, xAI, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the government’s order.
