India, France, Germany: List of nations cracking down on xAI’s Grok over deepfake abuse

Towards the end of December 2025, several users on X began commenting on images of people – usually women – by tagging Grok and asking the chatbot to “put her in a bikini” or “take her dress off”. The AI chatbot, which auto-replies when tagged, complied with these user requests and generated non-consensual sexual images of both celebrities and non-celebrities, including some who appeared to be young children.

In response, xAI has sought to shift the liability squarely on users, warning that those who submit prompts asking Grok to generate illegal content will face the same consequences as those uploading illegal content on X.

“We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary,” the platform’s safety team further said.

However, the list of countries contemplating regulatory action against X has continued to grow. Here’s a look at how regulators across different regions have responded to the latest Grok incident.

Malaysia

Malaysia’s digital regulator said that it is “presently investigating the online harms in X.”

In a statement, The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said that it has “taken note with serious concern of public complaints about the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) tools on the X platform, specifically the digital manipulation of images of women and minors to produce indecent, grossly offensive, and otherwise harmful content.”

France

Three French government ministers have reportedly flagged Grok’s outputs to the Paris prosecutor’s office, which has said that it will investigate the proliferation of sexually explicit deepfakes on X. The country’s digital affairs office said that the ministers also reported the “manifestly illegal content” to a government online surveillance platform in order “to obtain its immediate removal”, according to a report by Politico.

Regulators have also been asked to decide whether the images violate the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the legislative framework for governing the handling of content by online intermediaries such as X.

India

Taking note of Grok being abused to generate objectionable pictures and videos of women, without their consent, the IT Ministry said it has sent a directive to X which accused the social media platform of not adhering to the country’s laws and raised red flags over X’s “serious failure” to enforce safeguards.

“Grok AI developed by you and integrated and made available on the X platform, is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatory or vulgar manner in order to indecently denigrate them,” the IT Ministry said in the notice sent to the social media company’s chief compliance officer on Friday, January 2.

The IT Ministry directed X to submit a detailed action taken report by Wednesday, January 7, covering specific technical and organisational measures adopted by X in relation to Grok AI, the role and oversight exercised by its India chief compliance officer, and action taken by the company against offending content, users and accounts.

It also directed the company to undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural and governance-level review of Grok AI, including its prompt-processing, output generation, and image handling and safety guardrails, “to ensure that the application does not generate, promote or facilitate content which contains nudity, sexualisation, sexually explicit or otherwise unlawful content”.

European Union

The European Commission on Thursday, January 8, ordered X to retain all internal documents and data related to its AI chatbot Grok until the end of 2026, according to a report by Reuters. The order extends a retention requirement issued last year which is related to X’s algorithms and dissemination of illegal content.

“This is saying to a platform, keep your internal documents, don’t get rid of them, because we have doubts about your compliance … and we need to be able to have access to them if we request it explicitly,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier was quoted as saying.

However, the order does not signal that a new formal investigation has been undertaken against X under the Digital Services Act. Instead, it is meant to preserve evidence amid concerns about X’s compliance.

United Kingdom

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, December 8, said the government should take action against X. “It’s disgraceful, it’s disgusting, and it’s not to be tolerated. X has got to get a grip of this, and Ofcom has our full support to take action in relation to this,” he was quoted as saying by Politico. Liz Kendall, the UK’s technology secretary, also condemned Grok’s deepfakes on Tuesday, January 6.

Earlier this week, British regulator Ofcom said it has asked X to explain how Grok was able to produce undressed images of people and sexualised images of children, and whether it was failing in its legal duty to protect users.

“We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK. Based on their response we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation,” Ofcom said in a statement posted on X. In a separate statement, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it contacted X and xAI “to seek clarity on the measures they have in place to comply with UK data protection law and protect individuals’ rights.”

Creating or sharing non-consensual intimate images or child sexual abuse material, including AI-generated hyper-realistic sexual imagery, is illegal in Britain, according to a report by Reuters. Additionally, social media platforms are legally obligated to take steps to stop users from encountering illegal content and take it down when they become aware of it.

The UK government is also looking to impose a ban on so-called ‘nudification’ or ‘nudify’ apps as part of its broader legislative efforts to reduce online violence against women and girls by 50 per cent.

Germany

Germany called on the EU to take legal action against Musk’s X platform over Grok-generated, sexually explicit deepfakes. German media minister Wolfram Weimer urged the European Commission on Tuesday, January 6, to take legal action to stop what he called the “industrialisation of sexual harassment” taking place on X.

“What we are currently observing on X looks like the industrialisation of sexual harassment. It is now crucial that the EU Commission continues to enforce this (legal framework) as rigorously as it has already begun,” Weimer was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Germany’s digital ministry, which is responsible for DSA enforcement through the federal network regulator, said it was committed to ensuring compliance with the law and urged everyone to use its reporting rights. “The challenge at present is primarily to enforce the various – in some cases new – rights more consistently and to actually make use of them. Anyone who creates or distributes such images without consent is committing a serious violation of personal rights and may be liable to prosecution in many cases,” a ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Ireland

Ireland’s media regulator has said it is working through the European Commission after being “urged to take action against Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok”. “Responsibility for generating explicit images through Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok lies with users, rather than social media firm X,” Patrick O’Donovan, the country’s communications minister, was quoted as saying by the Irish Examiner on Thursday, January 8.

Brazil

Lawmakers in Brazil have called for the suspension of Grok in the country for generating and distributing non-consensual erotic images, including CSAM. “I am reporting the artificial intelligence ‘Grok’ and the social network X to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Data Protection Authority,” Brazilian federal deputy Erika Hilton said in a post on X on Monday, January 5. She further added that X must be disabled throughout the national territory until everything is properly.

Australia

eSafety, Australia’s online safety watchdog, has said that it is investigating the sexualised deepfake images generated by Grok

“Since late 2025, eSafety has received several reports relating to the use of Grok to generate sexualised images without consent,” an eSafety spokesperson was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “Some reports relate to images of adults, which are assessed under our image-based abuse scheme, while others relate to potential child sexual exploitation material, which are assessed under our illegal and restricted content scheme. The image-based abuse reports were received very recently and are still being assessed,” they added.

United States

While any US regulatory agency is yet to officially comment on the Grok undressing controversy, several lawmakers have reportedly raised concerns.

The Grok-generated images “are unacceptable and a clear violation of my legislation as well as X’s terms and conditions. These unlawful images pose a serious threat to victims’ privacy and dignity. They should be taken down and guardrails should be put in place,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz wrote in a post on X.

“This incident is a good reminder that we will face privacy and safety challenges as AI develops, and we should be aggressive in addressing those threats. I’m encouraged that X has announced that they’re taking these violations seriously and working to remove any unlawful images and offending users from their platform,” Cruz, who also serves as the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and sponsored the recently passed Take It Down Act, said.

Without directly mentioning Grok or xAI, a US Department of Justice (DOJ) official said that it “takes AI-generated child sex abuse material extremely seriously and will aggressively prosecute any producer or possessor of CSAM.” “We continue to explore ways to optimize enforcement in this space to protect children and hold accountable individuals who exploit technology to harm our most vulnerable,” a DOJ spokesperson was quoted as saying by Axios.