MeitY Writes to X Over Misuse of Grok AI for Obscene Content, Seeks Action Taken Report Within 72 Hours

ANI, Jan 02, 2026, New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has written to X (formerly Twitter) over its "failure to observe statutory due diligence obligations" under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and other relevant laws. MeitY sought an Action Taken Report for immediate compliance to prevent the 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 of obscene, nude, indecent, sexually explicit, vulgar, paedophilic content, or any content that invades another's privacy, including bodily privacy, or otherwise unlawful— including through AI-enabled systems and tools—attracts serious penal consequences under multiple statutes.

"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 into 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 to indecently denigrate them," the letter said.

"Importantly, this is not limited to the creation 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 the gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of applicable laws," it added.

MeitY stated in the letter that it believes the regulatory provisions under the Information Technology Act, 2000 ("IT Act") and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("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 Ministry asked the social media platform to immediately undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural, and governance-level review of the AI-based application "Grok", including its prompt-processing, output generation (responses generated using Large Language Models (LLMs)), image handling, and safety guardrails. This review aims to ensure that the application does not generate, promote, or facilitate content that contains nudity, sexualisation, sexually explicit content, or otherwise unlawful content in any form.

The Ministry also requested X to enforce its user terms of service, acceptable use policies, and AI usage restrictions, including 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. The report should cover "specific technical and organisational measures adopted or proposed in relation to the Grok application; the role and oversight exercised by the Chief Compliance Officer; actions 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 BNS."

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 intervention on a new trend that has emerged on social media, especially on X, by misusing their AI 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 is 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 the unauthorised use of their pictures, which is not just unethical but also criminal," she added.

Priyanka Chaturvedi 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.