Govt asks X to remove vulgar, unlawful content
New Delhi: The government on Friday issued a formal notice to X, directing the Elon Musk-led social media platform to immediately remove vulgar, obscene and unlawful content, particularly material generated through its artificial intelligence app Grok, or face action under Indian law.
The notice was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to the Chief Compliance Officer overseeing X’s India operations. The ministry cited alleged failures to meet statutory due diligence obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology Rules, 2021.
In its order dated January 2, the ministry instructed the platform to remove or disable access to content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws. “X is hereby directed 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,” the order said.
The ministry also directed X to initiate action against offending content, users and accounts, and to submit a detailed action taken report within 72 hours of the issuance of the order. According to Meity, the government has received inputs over time, including through public discourse and representations from parliamentary stakeholders, that certain categories of content circulating on the platform may not comply with laws related to decency and obscenity.
The move followed a letter earlier in the day from Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, seeking urgent intervention over incidents involving the misuse of the AI app Grok to generate vulgar images of women and circulate them on social media.
The order stated that the Grok AI service developed by X is being misused to create fake accounts that host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatory manner. It added that the misuse is not limited to fake profiles but also targets women who post their own 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,” the order said. Meity has sought an action taken report detailing steps for immediate compliance to prevent the hosting, generation, publication, transmission or sharing of obscene, nude, indecent or sexually explicit content through the misuse of the AI platform. The ministry warned that failure to comply could lead to legal consequences under the IT Act, IT Rules, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and other applicable laws, without further notice.
The ministry also asked X to undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural and governance-level review of Grok, including its prompt processing, output generation, image handling and safety guardrails, to ensure the application does not generate or facilitate unlawful content. On December 29, Meity had issued an advisory to social media companies to review their compliance frameworks and act against obscene and unlawful content. Following that advisory, the ministry observed that platforms were not acting strictly against such material, prompting the latest notice.
