The Centre has issued a notice to X over the misuse of its AI tool Grok, citing violations of IT laws after it was allegedly used to generate and circulate obscene and sexually explicit content targeting women and children.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a formal notice to X (formerly Twitter), flagging serious lapses in statutory due diligence under the Information Technology Act and IT Rules over the misuse of its artificial intelligence tool, Grok.
In the notice, MeitY said it has observed that Grok is being misused to generate and circulate obscene, sexually explicit and derogatory content, particularly targeting women and children. The ministry described the misuse as a grave violation of dignity, privacy and digital safety, and warned the platform of strict action if immediate corrective steps are not taken. The Centre has directed X to promptly remove and disable “obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content” created through the misuse of AI-based tools like Grok, citing provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the IT Rules, 2021.
In a letter addressed to the Chief Compliance Officer of the Elon Musk-owned platform, MeitY ordered an immediate and comprehensive review of Grok and the removal or disabling of access to all unlawful content.
“It has especially been observed that the service namely ‘Grok AI’ developed by you and integrated and made available on the X platform is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatory or vulgar manner in order to indecently denigrate them,” the ministry said in its letter.
“Such conduct reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguards and enforcement mechanisms, and amounts to gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of applicable laws,” it added.
The government has directed X to urgently review Grok’s technical design and governance framework, remove all unlawful content, initiate action against offending users and submit an Action Taken Report within 72 hours. MeitY cautioned that continued non-compliance could lead to the withdrawal of safe harbour protections under the IT Act and invite action under multiple cyber, criminal and child protection laws.
The notice follows a complaint raised by Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, who wrote to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw seeking urgent intervention.
In her letter, Chaturvedi flagged what she described as a “new trend” on X, alleging that men are misusing the Grok AI feature to manipulate photographs of women. She said fake accounts are being created to upload images of women and issue prompts to the AI bot to reduce their clothing and sexualise them.
“This is unacceptable and gross misuse of an AI function. What is worse is that Grok is enabling this behaviour by adhering to such requests,” she wrote.
Chaturvedi said the practice amounts to a violation of women’s right to privacy and unauthorised use of their images, calling it not only unethical but criminal. Writing in her capacity as a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology and Communications, she urged the government to take up the issue strongly with X and ensure robust safeguards are built into AI applications. She added that India cannot remain a bystander while women’s dignity is violated publicly and digitally “under the garb of creativity and innovation.”
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