Indonesia’s government has temporarily blocked access to Grok, the AI chatbot developed by xAI and available on X, saying the service produced and facilitated sexualised, non-consensual deepfake images that threaten public safety. On Jan. 8 the company restricted image‑generation and editing features to paying subscribers while it worked to address what it called “safeguard lapses” that had allowed sexualised outputs. Reported tests found that Grok edited images of women to appear in bikinis, including images of a public figure. Journalists in Jakarta observed that the Grok account continued to respond to queries, including in Bahasa Indonesia, even after access was restricted. The Indonesian action comes amid an international backlash against sexualised deepfakes and non‑consensual image editing.

Source: Washington Post January 10, 2026 22:11 UTC