Governments in Asia and Europe demand action after Grok shares sexual images

Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok is facing the risk of being permanently banned in France, Malaysia, and India after creating sexualized images of children in response to public prompts on X.

On Saturday, Malaysian authorities announced that they are investigating Grok for producing offensive and illegal content using AI. The country’s Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) confirmed it received complaints that Grok was generating manipulated images of women and minors in sexually explicit forms.

The agency made it clear that distributing such content is a criminal offense in Malaysia. According to their statement, they will also go after the users of X who requested or posted the content and plan to summon X representatives for questioning.

The MCMC said, “While X is not presently a licensed service provider, it has the duty to prevent dissemination of harmful content on its platform.”

India, France, and EU raise legal threats over Grok’s images

Just one day earlier, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a formal warning to X, demanding a complete review of Grok and its ability to generate nudity, sexualized material, or anything that’s unlawful.

Bloomberg claims it saw a copy of the notice, dated January 2, which gave X 72 hours to submit a full report on actions taken. The letter warned of potential criminal charges and additional penalties under the country’s IT laws.

India’s Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told CNBC-TV 18, “The Parliamentary Committee has recommended a strong law for regulating social media. We are considering it.”

Meanwhile, France’s government didn’t hold back either. Officials said on Friday that Grok had generated “clearly illegal” sexual material on X without people’s consent. They said the chatbot’s behavior was likely in violation of the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which demands large platforms take strong action to limit illegal content.

According to France, Grok’s actions show a complete failure in enforcement of platform rules.

Some of the pictures were taken down after backlash, but officials said the damage was already done. Even Grok’s own policy bans sexualization, making the violation even worse.

In response to the controversy, a post by Grok on X claimed it had “identified lapses in safeguards” and said fixes were “being urgently applied.” But that hasn’t slowed down the demands from governments for accountability.

Musk rages as EU slams X with €120 million penalty

Meanwhile, just last month, the European Union fined X €120 million (about $140 million) for breaking the Digital Services Act. The fine was for deceptive blue checkmark designs, opaque advertising systems, and refusal to give researchers data access. But Elon still blew up on the platform.

In one reply to the EU’s official post, Elon simply wrote: “Bullsh*t!” Then the next day, he posted, “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.”

Andrew Puzder, the U.S. ambassador to the EU, backed Elon on X, saying, “Today’s excessive €120M fine is the result of EU regulatory overreach targeting American innovation.”

He added that President Trump’s administration opposes censorship and will fight unfair international rules. “We expect the EU to engage in fair, open, & reciprocal trade — & nothing less,” Puzder posted.

As the backlash over Grok builds, so do the threats of regulation and lawsuits. But instead of cooling things down, Elon and his team replied to an email request from Bloomberg with just two words: “Legacy Media Lies.”

Claim your free seat in an exclusive crypto trading community - limited to 1,000 members.