As early as January 9, the UK government said that xAI’s response after its chatbot Grok was accused of generating pornographic content was “unacceptable,” and warned that if it refused to comply with UK law, its services would be blocked in the UK.
According to Bloomberg, responding to a chart that claimed the UK leads the world in arrests over social media speech, Musk posted: “Why is the UK government so fascist?”
The UK regulator responsible for reporting online child sexual abuse material to law enforcement said it had found on the dark web “criminal” images allegedly generated by Grok. The Internet Watch Foundation said pornographic images involving underage girls on the dark web had reached the threshold for law enforcement action.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier last week vowed to take action and demanded that X “immediately clean up” these pornographic images.
UK Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said in a statement on the 9th that media regulators should use “the full force of the law” and warned that if X refused to comply with UK law, the government could “block access to X for people in the UK.”
It is understood that recently some users on X have used Grok to edit images and videos, generating fake sexually explicit content of real people and spreading it on the platform. Victims include hundreds of adult women and minors.
Subsequently, Malaysia and Indonesia announced restrictions or bans on access to the Grok chatbot.
On January 11, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that it would temporarily restrict access to Grok, the chatbot of Musk’s AI company xAI, starting that day, citing abuse of Grok to generate pornographic, indecent, and non-consensually manipulated images.
On January 10, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs said the country had temporarily banned Grok over concerns that AI could generate pornographic content, becoming the first country to block access to the tool.
On January 9, CNBC reported that three U.S. Democratic senators urged Apple and Google to remove X and Grok from their app stores, arguing that the apps should not remain available until Musk prevents the generation and spread of non-consensual pornography and child sexual abuse images on the platform.
On January 8, European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the Commission had ordered U.S. social media platform X to preserve all internal documents and data related to its built-in chatbot Grok until the end of 2026.
On January 2, the Paris prosecutor’s office in France confirmed it would launch an investigation into Grok over alleged generation of illegal pornographic content.
On January 4, X said in response to the controversy that it would take action against illegal content on the platform, including removing related material, permanently banning accounts, and cooperating with local governments and law enforcement when necessary.
Notably, on January 7, xAI announced the completion of its Series E funding round, raising more than its previously set target of $15 billion, reaching a total of $20 billion (about 140 billion yuan). Musk later reposted the announcement and thanked investors for their trust.
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