Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok due to the generation of child pornography - ForkLog: cryptocurrencies, AI, singularity, future

# Malaysia and Indonesia have blocked Grok due to child pornography generation

Malaysia and Indonesia have restricted access to Elon Musk’s chat-bot Grok over concerns about the tool being used to generate sexual content.

On January 11, the Malaysian regulator ordered temporary restrictions after “repeated failures by X Corp” to mitigate risks associated with the AI service.

The day before, Indonesia suspended access to the chat-bot due to similar concerns and called the company’s representatives for a discussion.

The strict reaction from Southeast Asian countries followed reports that Grok allows the creation of material involving minors and the generation of pornographic images.

X stated that the company is addressing the issue. As a temporary measure, the image generation and editing features were made available only to paid subscribers.

Musk’s company recently updated Grok Imagine’s features, simplifying image creation through prompts in the chat-bot. The entrepreneur, in turn, threatened those who use the neural network for illegal purposes with responsibility.

Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2026

These measures are insufficient

Regulators in Malaysia and Indonesia were dissatisfied with the measures taken.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission stated that the actions “do not consider the risks related to the design and operation of the AI tool.”

“The restriction is implemented as a preventive and proportionate measure during the legal and regulatory procedures. Access to Grok will remain limited until effective safeguards are in place, particularly to prevent the appearance of content related to women and children,” — the regulator said.

Malaysia and Indonesia have strict anti-pornography laws that prohibit the widespread distribution of such content online.

Indonesia’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, Metyia Hafid, stated that the government considers created non-consensual sexual deepfakes a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and citizen safety in the digital space.

She classifies the use of AI to create fake pornography as a form of “digital violence.”

Widespread consequences

Regulators in the EU, the UK, Brazil, and India are demanding investigations into Grok’s role in spreading deepfakes.

The British organization Internet Watch Foundation noted that its analysts found “criminal images” of children aged 11 to 13, allegedly created with Grok.

In London, extreme measures are considered: Minister of Technology Liz Kendall confirmed she would support a decision to block X if the platform does not comply with safety standards. American lawmakers also proposed that marketplaces remove the app until the issue is resolved.

Authorities in various countries are urgently deciding how to regulate AI used for “undressing” people in photos.

Not the first scandal

Grok has previously been criticized multiple times for spreading fake and dubious information.

In December, the chat-bot provided false information about a mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia. In response to a question about a video showing a bystander, Ahmed Al-Ahmad, fighting the shooter, the AI replied:

“It appears to be an old viral clip showing a man climbing a palm tree in a parking lot, possibly to trim it. The branch then fell on a damaged car. Searches from various sources did not confirm the location, date, or injuries. It may be staged; authenticity is unverified.”

In July, users noticed that the neural network relies on Elon Musk’s opinions when forming responses. This included topics such as the Israel-Palestine conflict, abortions, and immigration laws.

Observations suggest that the chatbot was intentionally configured to consider Musk’s political views when answering controversial questions.

Earlier, the billionaire stated that his startup would rewrite “all human knowledge” to train a new version of Grok, as “there is currently too much garbage in any base model trained on unverified data.”

Subsequently, Grokipedia was launched — an AI-based online encyclopedia “focused on truth.”

Recall that in November, users noticed bias in Grok 4.1 — the new model significantly overestimated Elon Musk’s capabilities.