India has ordered Elon Musk’s X to make immediate technical and procedural changes to its AI chatbot Grok after users and lawmakers flagged the generation of “obscene” content, including AI-altered images of women created using the tool.
On Friday, India’s IT Ministry issued the order directing Musk’s X to take corrective action against Grok, including restricting the generation of content involving “nudity, sexualization, sexually explicit or otherwise illegal” material. The ministry also gave the social media platform 72 hours to submit an action report detailing the steps it has taken to prevent the hosting or dissemination of content deemed “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, obscene, sexually explicit, pedophilic or otherwise prohibited by law.”
The order, reviewed by TechCrunch, warned that failure to comply could jeopardize X’s “safe harbor” protection — legal immunity from liability for user-generated content under Indian law.
India’s move follows concerns raised by users who shared examples of Grok being asked to alter photos of individuals – primarily women – to make them appear to be wearing bikinis, leading to a formal complaint from Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi. Separately, recent reports reported instances where the AI ​​chatbot generated sexualized images involving minors, a problem X acknowledged earlier on Friday was caused by lapses in security measures. These photos were later taken down.
But images generated using Grok that made women appear to be wearing bikinis through AI alteration remained available on X at the time of publication, TechCrunch found.
The latest order comes days after India’s IT ministry on Monday issued a broader notice, also reviewed by TechCrunch, to social media platforms reminding them that compliance with local laws governing obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for maintaining legal immunity from liability for user-generated material. The advisory urged companies to strengthen internal security measures and warned that failure to do so could invite legal action under India’s IT and criminal laws.
“It is reiterated that failure to comply with the above requirements shall be taken seriously and may result in severe legal consequences for your platform, its responsible employees and users on the platform who violate the law, without further notice,” the order warned.
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The Indian government said non-compliance could lead to action against X under India’s IT and criminal laws.
India, one of the world’s largest digital markets, has emerged as a critical test case for how far governments are willing to go in holding platforms accountable for AI-generated content. Any tightening of enforcement in the country could have ripple effects for global technology companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The order comes as Musk’s X continues to challenge aspects of India’s content regulation rules in court, arguing that the federal government’s removal powers risk overreach, even though the platform has complied with a majority of blocking directives. At the same time, Grok has increasingly been used by X users for real-time fact-checking and commentary on news events, making its output more visible — and more politically sensitive — than the standalone AI tools.
X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Indian government’s order.