MeitY writes to X over ‘misuse of Grok AI’ for obscene content, seeks action taken report within 72 hours

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has written a to X (formerly Twitter) over “failure to observe statutory due diligence obligations” under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and other relevant laws and sought an Action Taken Report towards immediate compliance for prevention of hosting, generation and uploading of obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content “through the misuse of AI-based services like ‘Grok’ and xAI’s other services”.

In a letter to the Chief Compliance Officer, X Corp, India Operations, MeitY advised the social media platform to strictly desist from the hosting, displaying, uploading, publication, transmission, storage, sharing of any content that is obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, paedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under any law for the time being in force in any manner whatsoever.

“Failure to observe such due diligence obligations shall result in the loss of the exemption from liability under section 79 of the IT Act, and you shall also be liable for consequential action as provided under any law including the IT Act and BNS”, the letter said.

The letter emphasised that hosting, generation, publication, transmission, sharing, or uploading ofobscene, nude, indecent, sexually explicit, vulgar, paedophilic content or any content that is invasive of another’s privacy including bodily privacy or otherwise unlawful, including through Al-enabled systems and tools, attracts serious penal consequences under multiple statutes,

इलेक्ट्रॉनिक्स एवं सूचना प्रौद्योगिकी मंत्रालय (MeitY) ने X Corp. के चीफ कंप्लायंस ऑफिसर को पत्र लिखकर आईटी एक्ट 2000 और आईटी नियम 2021 के उल्लंघन पर कड़ी आपत्ति जताई है। मंत्रालय ने AI सेवाओं, खासकर Grok AI के जरिए अश्लील व आपत्तिजनक कंटेंट के प्रसार पर चिंता जताते हुए तत्काल… pic.twitter.com/51m07Btlm2

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“It has been reported and represented from time to time, including through public discourse and representations from various parliamentary stakeholders that certain categories of content circulating on your platform may not be in compliance with applicable laws relating to decency and obscenity. It has especially been observed that the service namely “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 letter said.

“Importantly, this is not limited to creating of fake accounts but also targets women who host or publish their images or videos, through prompts, image manipulation and synthetic outputs. Such conduct reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguards and enforcement mechanisms, and amounts to gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of applicable laws,” it added.

MeitY said in the letter that it is of the view that the regulatory provisions under the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“ITAct”) and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 202I (*IT Rules, 2021′) “are not being adequately adhered to by your platform, particularly in relation to obscene, indecent, vulgar, pornographic, paedophilic, or otherwise unlawful or harmful content which are potentially violative of extant laws”.

“The aforesaid acts and omissions are viewed with grave concern, as they have the effect of violating the dignity, privacy and safety of women and children, normalising sexual harassment and exploitation in digital spaces, and undermining the statutory due diligence framework applicable to intermediaries operating in India,” it added.

The Minstry asked the social media platform to immediately undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural and governance-level review of the Al-based application “Grok”, including its prompt-processing, outputgeneration (responses generated using Large Language Models (LLMs)), image handling and safety guardrails, so as to ensure that the application does not generate, promote or facilitate content which contains nudity, sexualisation, sexually explicit or otherwise unlawful content in any form.

The Ministry also asked X to enforce its user terms of service, acceptable use policies and AI usage restrictions, inciuding strong deterrent measures such as suspension, termination and other enforcement actions against violating users and accounts.

It asked the social media platform to remove or disable access, without delay, to all content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws, in strict compliance with the timelines prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021,without vitiating the evidence in any manner;

‘X’ Corp has been asked to submit a detailed Action Taken Report (ATR) to the Ministry at the earliest and in any case not later than seventy-two (72) hours from the date of issuance of the letter covering “specific technical and organisational measures adopted or proposed in relation to the Grok application; role and oversight exercised by the Chief Compliance Officer; aotions taken against offending content, users and accounts; and . mechanisms put in place to ensure compliance with the mandatory reporting requirement under section 33 of the BNSS”.

Earlier on Thursday, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote to Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, raising concerns over the alleged misuse of artificial intelligence tools on social media platforms to post objectionable images of women using fake accounts.

She said such practices amount to a serious breach of women’s privacy and urged the Centre to take urgent steps to safeguard their rights.

“I wanted to bring to your urgent attention and urgent intervention on a new trend that has emerged on social media, especially on X, by misusing their Al Grok feature where men are using fake accounts to post women’s photos and pushing out prompts to Grok to minimise their clothing and sexualise them. It is not just limited to sharing photos through fake accounts but are also targeting women who post their own photos. This is unacceptable and a gross misuse of an AI function,” she said.

“What is worse is that Grok is enabling this behaviour by adhering to such requests. This is a breach of women’s right to privacy as well as unauthorised use of their pictures, which is not just unethical but also criminal,” she added.

Priyanka Chaturvedi had urged the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology to take decisive action against the social media platform and to implement safeguards in AI-driven tools to ensure women’s safety online. (ANI)