Malaysia blocks Grok amid controversy over nonconsensual sexualised images

Malaysia has blocked access to Elon Musk’s AI model Grok amid a global uproar over the chatbot’s ability to create sexually explicit images of people without their consent, Al Jazeera reported.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said on Sunday it had temporarily banned Grok after ordering the chatbot’s developer xAI and the social media platform X to introduce safeguards to ensure compliance with the law.

The Malaysian watchdog’s announcement came a day after Indonesia became the world’s first country to formally ban the chatbot, which is offered as both a standalone platform and an in-built feature on X.

Grok has been mired in controversy in recent days over the use of its image-generation tool to depict real people in minimal clothing and sexualised poses without their consent.

The spread of the sexualised deepfakes, some of them including minors, has prompted condemnation and calls to action from officials in numerous countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Australia.

Grok last week began limiting the use of its image-generation tool on X to paid subscribers in an apparent bid to quell the controversy.

European officials and campaigners reacted negatively to the move, saying it did little to resolve the core problem of facilitating nonconsensual imagery.