Factbox-Elon Musk's Grok faces global scrutiny for sexualised AI deepfakes

Jan 12 (Reuters) – Governments and regulators from Europe to Asia are cracking down on sexually explicit content generated by Elon Musk's xAI chatbot Grok on X, launching probes, imposing bans and demanding safeguards, in a growing global push to curb illegal material.    Here are some reactions from governments and regulators around the world made earlier in January. EUROPE  The European Commission extended a retention order sent to X last year to retain and preserve all internal documents and data related to Grok until the end of 2026, amid concern over Grok-generated sexualised "undressed" images. On Monday, Britain's media regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into X to determine whether sexually intimate deepfakes produced by Grok violated its duty to protect people in the UK from content that could be illegal, under the country's Online Safety Act framework. In France, government ministers said they had referred sexually explicit Grok-generated content circulating on X to prosecutors and also alerted French media regulator Arcom to check the platform's compliance with the European Union's Digital Services Act.  Germany's media minister Wolfram Weimer called on the European Commission to take legal steps, saying EU rules provided tools to tackle illegal content and alleging the problem risked turning into the "industrialisation of sexual harassment". Italy's data protection authority warned that using AI tools to create "undressed" deepfake imagery of real people without consent could amount to serious privacy violations and, in some cases, criminal offences.  Swedish political leaders have also condemned Grok-generated sexualised "undressing" content after reporting that imagery involving Sweden's deputy prime minister was produced from a user prompt. ASIA India's IT Ministry sent X a formal notice on January 2 over alleged Grok-enabled creation or sharing of obscene sexualised images, directing the content to be taken down and requiring a report on the actions being taken within 72 hours. Indonesia's communications and digital ministry said it had blocked access to Grok, a move that digital minister Meutya Hafid said was meant to protect women and children from AI-generated fake pornographic content, citing Indonesia's strict anti‑pornography laws. Malaysia announced a temporary ban on Grok on Sunday, citing "repeated misuse" of the tool to generate "obscene, sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive, and non-consensual manipulated images", including content involving women and minors. OCEANIA Australia's online-safety regulator eSafety said it was investigating Grok-generated "digitally undressed" sexualised deepfake images, assessing adult material under its image‑based abuse scheme and noting current child-related examples it had reviewed did not meet the legal threshold for child sexual abuse material under Australian law. HOW HAS xAI RESPONDED? Grok's developer xAI, X's parent company, has put in place restrictions that allow only paid subscribers to use image generation and editing features on the platform.  X says it takes action against illegal content on the platform, including child sexual abuse material, by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary. Musk had said earlier on X that anyone using Grok to make illegal content would suffer the same consequences as if they uploaded illegal content. (Reporting by Hugo Lhomedet in Gdansk and Sam Tabahriti in London, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)