(Jakarta, 11th) The Indonesian government officially announced on the 10th that it will temporarily block “Grok,” the chatbot developed by Musk’s AI start-up xAI, primarily due to the tool’s risk of generating pornographic content and deepfake imagery. Previously, regulators from multiple countries across Asia and Europe had condemned and launched investigations into sexually suggestive content produced by this software, with Indonesia becoming the world’s first country to impose a ban on this AI.
According to foreign media reports, Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Informatics, Meutya, stated in an announcement that the government considers non-consensually generated sexually explicit deepfakes to be a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and public safety. As the country with the world’s largest Muslim population, Indonesia has always applied extremely strict legal standards to indecent content circulating online.
The catalyst for this blocking action was a series of recent security breaches involving Grok’s safety mechanisms. Reports indicate that the software was found to allow users to generate sexually suggestive images, including those involving child nudity. Although xAI stated last Thursday that it had restricted the image generation and editing features to only paid subscribers in order to fix security flaws, this clearly failed to dispel the concerns of the Indonesian government.
In response to the ban, Musk posted on X (formerly Twitter) stating that any user creating illegal content with Grok would bear the same legal consequences as those uploading illegal content directly. However, when responding to foreign media inquiries, xAI replied only with a short, seemingly automated message: “Legacy Media Lies,” signaling a tough stance.
Currently, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications has formally summoned representatives of the X platform, requesting explanations regarding its content review mechanisms. This is not the first time Musk’s companies have clashed with national governments, but as the first country to “pull the plug,” Indonesia’s tough stance has sparked heated international discussion on cross-border AI regulation.
In addition to Indonesia, regulatory agencies in multiple countries are closely monitoring sexually explicit content generated by Grok. Industry analysts have pointed out that as generative AI’s image technology rapidly advances, the lack of effective filtering mechanisms may cause these tools to spread hate and pornography. The Indonesian government emphasized that the ban will remain in effect until it is confirmed that Grok no longer produces content that violates local laws.