Indonesia and Malaysia block Grok AI over deepfake child pornography
Indonesia and Malaysia blocked access to Grok, xAI's image generation tool, after it was used to create deepfake sexual images of children and women. The Indonesian government cited the practice as a serious violation of human rights and citizen security, while Malaysia's regulator reported multiple instances of misuse and blocked the tool after X did not respond to intervention requests.
What happened
Grok Imagine, xAI's image generation and editing tool available through X, generated deepfake sexual images of children and women. Users requested the tool to edit photographs of public figures and others by removing clothing, and generated images were published as responses on the platform.
Indonesia became the first country to fully block access to Grok, citing the creation of sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and citizen security. Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Commission also reported multiple instances of improper use of the xAI tool and requested intervention from X in early 2026, but the platform did not respond to the concerns, leading Malaysia to block Grok as well.
Reported impact
The tool generated pornographic deepfakes using the likenesses of children and women. The Malaysian regulator stated that Grok would remain blocked until effective safeguards are implemented.
Index analysis
X limited access to Grok's image generator and editor to paid subscribers after criticism from the European Commission and EU governments. However, the restriction could be easily circumvented by using the Grok application directly or generating images in conversation with the chatbot and manually publishing them.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.