The central government on Friday came down heavily on Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) and sought an Action Taken Report (ATR) within 72 hours, while calling for immediate compliance to prevent the hosting, creation, and uploading of obscene, nude, indecent, and sexually explicit content “through the misuse of AI-based services like ‘Grok’ and xAI’s other services".
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) cited X's “failure to observe statutory due diligence obligations” under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and other applicable laws.
The notice asked for the report on the specific technical and organisational steps adopted or proposed for the Grok application, the role and oversight exercised by the Chief Compliance Officer, actions taken against offending content, users and accounts, and the mechanisms established to ensure compliance with the mandatory reporting requirements under Section 33 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
It further noted that the issue extends beyond the creation of fake accounts, as women who share their own images or videos are also being targeted through prompts, image manipulation and synthetic outputs. The statement said this points to a serious breakdown in platform safeguards and enforcement, amounting to a gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of applicable laws.
What if X fails to comply?
"Failure to observe such due diligence obligations shall result in the loss of the exemption from liability under section 79 of the IT Act, and you shall also be liable for consequential action as provided under any law including the IT Act and BNS," the letter read.
Outrage
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, raising concerns about the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence tools on social media to circulate objectionable images of women through fake accounts.
Calling it “unacceptable,” she said such practices amount to a serious breach of women’s privacy and urged the Centre to take immediate steps to safeguard their rights.
Meanwhile, French ministers informed prosecutors about sexually explicit content produced by Musk’s xAI artificial intelligence chatbot Grok on the X platform, stating on Friday that the “sexual and sexist” content was “manifestly illegal", according to Reuters.
Grok AI trend targeting women
A troubling and alarming trend started a few days ago on X, with users exploiting the platform’s AI tool, Grok, to manipulate photos of women and children into sexually explicit images. The issue has sparked renewed fears about AI-enabled sexual abuse. Users reportedly issued direct prompts to Grok to alter images of women and children, creating abusive content that was then widely shared without consent, exposing victims to harassment, humiliation, and harm.
