{"id":510829,"date":"2026-01-12T12:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/510829\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:46:11","slug":"malaysia-and-indonesia-block-grok-over-explicit-ai-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/510829\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysia and Indonesia block Grok over explicit AI images"},"content":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) \u2014 Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok<\/a>, the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk\u2019s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and non-consensual images.<\/p>\n

The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk\u2019s social media platform X<\/a>, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children.<\/p>\n

Regulators in the two Southeast Asian nations said existing controls were not preventing the creation and spread of fake pornographic content<\/a>, particularly involving women and minors. Indonesia\u2019s government temporarily blocked access to Grok on Saturday, followed by Malaysia on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government sees non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space,\u201d Indonesia\u2019s Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement Saturday.<\/p>\n

The ministry said the measure was intended to protect women, children and the broader community from fake pornographic content generated using AI. <\/p>\n

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Initial findings showed that Grok lacks effective safeguards to stop users from creating and distributing pornographic content based on real photos of Indonesian residents, Alexander Sabar, director general of digital space supervision, said in a separate statement. He said such practices risk violating privacy and image rights when photos are manipulated or shared without consent, causing psychological, social and reputational harm.<\/p>\n

In Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ordered a temporary restriction on Grok on Sunday after what it said was \u201crepeated misuse\u201d of the tool to generate obscene, sexually explicit and non-consensual manipulated images, including content involving women and minors.<\/p>\n

The regulator said notices issued this month to X Corp. and xAI demanding stronger safeguards drew responses that relied mainly on user reporting mechanisms. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe restriction is imposed as a preventive and proportionate measure while legal and regulatory processes are ongoing,\u201d it said, adding that access will remain blocked until effective safeguards are put in place.<\/p>\n

Launched in 2023, Grok is free to use on X. Users can ask it questions on the social media platform and tag posts they\u2019ve directly created or replies to posts from other users. Last summer the company added an image generator feature, Grok Imagine, that included a so-called \u201cspicy mode\u201d that can generate adult content. <\/p>\n

The Southeast Asian restrictions come amid mounting scrutiny of Grok elsewhere, including in the European Union, Britain, India and France. Grok last week limited image generation and editing to paying users<\/a> following a global backlash<\/a> over sexualized deepfakes of people, but critics say it did not fully address the problem.<\/p>\n

An attempt by The Associated Press to request a comment through email to xAI resulted in an automated reply from the media support email address which stated, \u201cLegacy Media Lies.\u201d This was the same message received from a different email when asked for comment regarding the global backlash.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

Tarigan reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) \u2014 Malaysia and Indonesia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":510830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[228430,738,3774,13214,64,18887,66,57,9996,82643,192955,1165,8372,39944,50,158,103,107,24724],"class_list":{"0":"post-510829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-alexander-sabar","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-asia-pacific","12":"tag-business","13":"tag-child-pornography","14":"tag-elon-musk","15":"tag-general-news","16":"tag-indonesia","17":"tag-indonesia-government","18":"tag-industry-regulation","19":"tag-lifestyle","20":"tag-malaysia","21":"tag-malaysia-government","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-technology","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-x-corp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115882202615733363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}