 "Grok objectionable content row: Govt gives X another 72 hours to file reply")
The government has extended by 72 hours the time given to Elon Musk-owned X (formerly Twitter) to explain how its flagship artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok was able to generate objectionable images of women and children on request of the platform’s users in India, sources said.
The platform now has till 5 pm on January 7 to respond to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (Meity’s) queries, including submitting a report on the comprehensive “technical, procedural, and governance-level” review that it was ordered to conduct on the Grok AI application, a senior government official said.
“They (X) sought more time, citing holidays in the US and the unavailability of most of their global and legal teams. For the time being, they have complied with government orders of removing all objectionable and illegal content,” the official said.
Earlier this week, in a letter sent to X, the cyber law division of Meity had asked X to “remove or disable access, without delay, to all content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws, in strict compliance with the timelines prescribed under the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, without vitiating the evidence in any manner”.
In its letter, the IT ministry had also said that X must also enforce its terms of service and AI-usage restrictions, and take “strong deterrent measures", including suspending, terminating or taking other action against accounts using Grok to create sexually explicit images of women and children.
A day after the IT ministry’s letter, Musk warned in a post on X that “anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.
Users in India and across the world have been able to use Grok to create sexually explicit and objectionable images of women and children with simple prompts.
The issue has triggered backlash from several users, including a large number of women who have also resorted to tagging Grok and giving the chatbot instructions that their photos should not be allowed to be used by anyone to create any objectionable or sexually explicit images.
Following the issue, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw last week remarked that social media platforms needed to take responsibility for the content on their platforms.
“Today, social media is such a big influence in our society. They (social media intermediaries) must take responsibility for the content they host. There should be intervention on the content on these platforms,” Vaishnaw had said.
Last week, the IT ministry had also issued a directive to all social media companies to take down obscene content on their platforms or face strict action. In its third advisory of 2025, reminding platforms of their duty to comply with the IT Rules and the IT Act, the ministry said intermediaries should apply greater “rigour” in monitoring such vulgar and obscene content.
The IT ministry had, in its advisory, said there was a need for greater consistency and rigour in the observance of due diligence obligations by intermediaries, particularly in the “identification, reporting and expeditious removal” of content that is “obscene, indecent, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic, harmful to child, or otherwise unlawful”.
What X said
- Sought more time from Meity
- Cited holidays in the US and the unavailability of most of their global and legal teams
- Last week, Meity had asked X to submit a report on the comprehensive “technical, procedural, and governance-level” review of Grok