DICT lifts Grok ban after ‘corrective actions’ taken on explicit deepfake generation

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) announced on Friday, January 23, that it had formally ended a ban on xAI’s Grok chatbot, which had been in place from January 16 to 21.

The Philippines earlier sought to block Grok in the country due to its ability to create sexually explicit or otherwise revealing deepfakes of people.

In a January 23 press statement, the DICT said “the immediate misuse issue has been addressed.” Grok apparently made corrective actions that included stronger restrictions on prompts that involved real people and better enforcement of its acceptable use policies.

“Protecting Filipino users remains our paramount concern. At the same time, we support responsible innovation and recognize the role of emerging technologies in national development, provided these technologies operate within the bounds of Philippine law and uphold human dignity,” DICT Secretary Henry Aguda said.

Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) Deputy Executive Director Renato Paraiso said, “We checked the safeguards that xAI has put in place, and we are satisfied.”

The DICT and CICC added they would continue to “monitor xAI’s compliance with its self-policing and regulation commitment” to ensure the company follows applicable Filipino laws and regulations, such as the country’s laws against content-related cybercrime offenses. – Rappler.com