NEW DELHI: The government on Friday directed Elon Musk-owned social media platform X to immediately remove all obscene, indecent, sexually explicit, and unlawful content from its platform, warning of legal action in case of non-compliance. The directive places special emphasis on content generated through X’s AI tool, Grok.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued a notice to the Chief Compliance Officer of X Corp’s India operations, citing failure to comply with statutory due diligence requirements under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The ministry has sought a detailed action-taken report within 72 hours outlining steps to prevent the generation and transmission of explicit content through the misuse of AI-based services such as Grok and xAlts.
“Non-compliance with the above requirements shall be viewed seriously and may result in strict legal consequences against your platform, without any further notice, under the IT Act, IT Rules, BNSS, BNS and other applicable laws,” MeitY said in its communication to X.
The ministry noted that it has repeatedly received reports, including representations from Members of Parliament, indicating that certain content circulating on X violates laws related to decency and obscenity. It specifically observed that the Grok AI service is being misused to create fake accounts that host, generate, publish or share images and videos of women in a derogatory or vulgar manner.
In response, MeitY has directed X to immediately carry out a comprehensive technical, procedural, and governance-level review of the Grok AI application. The platform has also been instructed to strictly enforce its terms of service, acceptable use policies, and AI usage restrictions, including imposing strong deterrent measures such as suspension or termination of offending accounts.
Copies of the notice have been shared with the ministries of home affairs, women and child development, information and broadcasting, as well as the National Commission for Women (NCW), National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), and the chief secretaries of all states and Union Territories.
