Indonesia made international headlines, becoming the first country to block access to xAI Grok, albeit only temporarily. Elon Musk's AI chatbot tool for X (formerly Twitter) Grok has been the subject of controversy for months, making headlines internationally.
The temporary ban cited pressing concerns over Grok's image-generation abilities, particularly those of children and women depicting non-consensual and explicit content.
The country's Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs made the announcement Saturday, 10 January 2026, highlighting the urgency of protecting women and children from the potential mental and social harms of AI-generated explicit content.
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Minister Meutya Hafid of Indonesia's Communication and Digital Affairs said in an official statement shared by Antara Indonesian News Agency, 'The government views non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and citizens' security in the digital space,' categorising AI misuse, particularly that of generating 'fake pornography' as types of 'digital-based violence.'
Indonesia has temporarily banned Grok. pic.twitter.com/My3YoLRbZW
— Indonesian Pop Base (@iPopBase) January 10, 2026
Events Leading to Indonesia's Ban
The backlash for Grok's AI functions being used as a tool to generate sexualized deepfakes of children and adults alike continues. Grok initially came with safety filters that critics deemed inadequate, prompting xAI to make Grok's image generation features subscription-based to address concerns. The app, however, continues to enable image generation without a subscription.
xAI's 'partial' response to scrutiny over Grok's safety was not nearly satisfactory to regulators, arguing that the effort to mitigate risks from explicit content and deepfakes, such as user reports and subscription fees, was not enough. Earlier this month, Grok faced a UK ban for AI-generated sexual content, prompting the British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to describe the situation as 'disgraceful,' 'disgusting,' 'not to be tolerated.'
‘It is the equivalent of trying to shut down Microsoft Word!’ @benleo444 weighs in on reports that the UK may ban X over the AI deepfake abuse scandal. pic.twitter.com/tSzV48vKX8
— GB News (@GBNEWS) January 9, 2026
The Indonesian government is calling on domestically operating digital platforms to demonstrate that they have effective measures in place to prevent the production and distribution of any explicit and other prohibited content. The Ministry has called on Platform X to issue an official explanation and clarify the negative impacts of the chatbot's configuration, and stated that Grok's outlook in the country depends on the implementation of ethical AI standards.
With Indonesia moving to ban Grok, Malaysia has decided to follow suit. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) announced Grok access restriction for the same AI misuse, particularly in generating non-consensual and obscene images, involving minors.
AI Ethics & Public Safety
The AI-generated sexual content and deepfake controversy have prompted debates about protecting human dignity, security on digital platforms, and public trust in online platforms, especially in the gen-AI era, where hyper-realistic images and videos can be created within seconds.
For users of the app and the social media platform, Grok will remain unavailable in Indonesia until Platform X implements robust safeguards and compliance measures to protect the public. This restriction, which is the first of its kind, has also triggered scrutiny of AI content standards for generative AI tools and their future. Social media users continue to raise concerns about the misuse of similar AI systems, calling for industry-wide and international policies.
