Breaking News

X admits mistake, removes obscene content after Government flag

Social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, has blocked more than 3,500 posts and deleted over 600 accounts after the Indian government flagged the circulation of obscene and sexually explicit images generated by its AI chatbot, Grok, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The action follows a warning from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which had asked X Corp to submit an action-taken report after raising concerns over what it described as serious lapses in content moderation. Sources said X has acknowledged the issue and assured the government that it is taking steps to ensure compliance with India’s online content regulations.

Officials said the platform has also agreed to prevent the generation and dissemination of obscene imagery through Grok going forward, marking a shift from its earlier position on AI-generated content.

Government flags legal lapses

MeitY formally wrote to X, flagging the spread of sexually explicit material and warning that failure to act could result in the loss of legal protections available to intermediaries under Indian law. An official had said at the time that “the law of the land must prevail,” adding that similar scrutiny would be applied to other platforms if their AI tools failed to comply with content norms.

According to officials, the government has made it clear that Grok cannot be treated as a neutral technological tool. “Grok is not merely a platform feature. It is a content creator—an artificial one. The same standards that apply to human content creators must apply here,” a senior official said.

The official also noted that the impact of violations was amplified in Grok’s case because it operates directly within a large social media platform, increasing the reach and potential harm of objectionable content.

Sources said X responded to the ministry’s letter within five days, but the government was not satisfied with the explanation. One official described the response as largely reiterating X’s existing user policies without directly addressing the concerns raised. The ministry maintained that its core issues remained unresolved despite the reply.

India is not the only country to raise objections to Grok’s content generation. Indonesia has recently suspended the chatbot over concerns related to AI-generated pornographic material. Other countries, including the United Kingdom, France and Malaysia, have also pushed back in the past against the generation of explicit content by AI tools.

The Indian government has indicated that it will continue to closely monitor compliance, signalling tighter oversight of AI-driven content creation on digital platforms operating in the country.