Indonesia temporarily blocks access to Grok over sexualised images

Indonesia temporarily blocked Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot on ‍Saturday (January 9, 2026) due to the risk of AI-generated ​pornographic content, becoming the first country ‌to deny access to the ​AI tool.

The move comes after governments and regulators from Europe to Asia have condemned and some have opened inquiries into sexualised content on the app.

xAI, the startup behind ​Grok, said on Thursday (January 8, 2026) it ⁠was restricting image generation and editing to paying subscribers as it tried to fix safeguard lapses ​that had ⁠allowed sexualised outputs including depictions of scantily clad children.

“The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as ‌a serious violation of human ‌rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital ‍space,” Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid said in a statement.

The Ministry ‍has also summoned X officials to discuss the matter. Mr. Musk said on X (formerly, Twitter) that anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they had uploaded illegal content.

xAI replied to Reuters‘ email ⁠seeking comment with what seemed to be an automated response: “Legacy ​Media Lies”. X did not immediately respond ⁠to a request for comment.

Indonesia, with the world’s biggest Muslim population, has strict rules that ban the sharing online of ⁠content deemed obscene.