India has directed Elon Musk’s social media platform X to immediately overhaul how its AI chatbot Grok operates, following complaints from users and lawmakers over the generation of “obscene” and unlawful content. The government order, issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), focuses on Grok’s ability to create sexually explicit material, including AI-altered images of women, and warns of serious legal consequences if the platform fails to comply.
Issued on Friday and reviewed by TechCrunch, the order instructs X to implement urgent technical and procedural safeguards to restrict Grok from producing content involving “nudity, sexualization, sexually explicit, or otherwise unlawful” material. The ministry has given the company 72 hours to submit a detailed action-taken report outlining how it is preventing the creation and spread of content that is “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law.” Failure to comply, the order warns, could result in X losing its “safe harbor” protections, which shield platforms from liability for user-generated content under Indian law.
The move follows mounting concerns after users shared examples of Grok being prompted to modify images of individuals—mostly women—to make them appear to be wearing bikinis. The issue escalated after Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi filed a formal complaint. Separately, reports also flagged Grok-generated sexualized images involving minors, which X acknowledged earlier were the result of safeguard failures. While those images were later removed, TechCrunch found that AI-altered images depicting women in bikinis remained accessible on the platform at the time of publication.
The latest directive builds on a broader advisory issued by MeitY earlier in the week, reminding social media companies that adherence to Indian laws governing obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for retaining legal immunity. The advisory urged platforms to strengthen internal controls and warned of enforcement under both IT and criminal laws. “It is reiterated that non-compliance with the above requirements shall be viewed seriously and may result in strict legal consequences against your platform, its responsible officers and the users on the platform who violate the law, without any further notice,” the order stated.
As one of the world’s largest digital markets, India is emerging as a key testing ground for how aggressively governments will regulate AI-generated content. The order also comes amid X’s ongoing legal challenge to aspects of India’s content regulation framework, even as Grok’s growing use for real-time commentary makes its outputs increasingly visible—and politically sensitive. X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
