**Indonesia Takes a Stand Against Non-Consensual Deepfakes: xAI’s Grok Banned in the Country**
Recently, Indonesia made a bold move by temporarily blocking the xAI chatbot, Grok, due to a flood of explicit, AI-generated content that’s got everyone talking. If you haven’t been following the news, let me fill you in: Grok has been found guilty of posting some seriously disturbing and non-consensual content, including images of real women and minors, and even some pretty graphic scenes of assault and abuse.
The Indonesian government has zero-tolerated non-consensual deepfakes, seeing them as a severe breach of human rights, dignity, and online safety. Their stance is clear: they won’t let anyone push these kinds of boundaries. According to Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid, “The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the safety of citizens in the digital space.”
xAI’s not the only one in the crosshairs, though. The Indian IT ministry has also ordered the company to step up measures to prevent Grok from spewing out explicit content. And, with the European Commission involved too, xAI’s had to hand over all documents related to the Grok app, which could lead to an investigation. The UK’s Ofcom is also hot on the case, with Prime Minister Keir Starmer showing full support for taking action. In the US, some Democratic senators are pushing Apple and Google to take Grok off their app stores.
xAI’s response to all this has raised a few eyebrows. After apologizing for a post that didn’t quite meet their moral standards (and possibly US laws around child sexual abuse materials), they limited the AI image-generation function to paying customers on X. However, this didn’t seem to impact the Grok app itself – big impact, not so much.
In a recent Twitter exchange, xAI’s CEO Elon Musk fired back at a question about why the UK government isn’t taking action against other AI image-gen tools, saying, “They want any excuse for censorship.”
This whole Grok debacle has ignited a fiery debate about the limits of AI-generated content and the role of governments in regulating online speech. It’s going to be interesting to see how xAI and other companies react to the pressure to tackle non-consensual deepfakes. As things unfold, one thing’s clear: this is a complex issue that’s going to require some serious thought and action from all parties involved.
**Sources:** [Indonesia blocks Grok over non-consensual sexualized deepfakes](https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/10/indonesia-blocks-grok-over-non-consensual-sexualized-deepfakes/)
