India has ordered Elon Musk’s company
India’s Ministry of Information Technology on Friday issued an order directing Musk’s The ministry also gave the social media platform 72 hours to submit a procedural report detailing the steps it has taken to prevent the hosting or publishing of content deemed “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, child sexual, or prohibited by law.”
The order, reviewed by TechCrunch, warned that failure to comply could jeopardize X’s “safe harbor” protection — legal immunity from liability for user-generated content under Indian law.
India’s move follows concerns raised by users who shared examples of Grok being asked to alter photos of individuals – mostly women – to make them appear to be wearing bikinis, leading to… Formal complaint From Indian parliamentarian Priyanka Chaturvedi. Separately, recent reports have pointed to cases in which an AI-powered chatbot Sexual images involving minors were createdX issue I confess Earlier on Friday it was caused by lapses in safeguards. Those photos were later removed.
However, images created with Grok that made women appear to be wearing bikinis through AI editing remained available on X at press time, TechCrunch found.
The latest order comes days after India’s IT Ministry issued a wide-ranging advisory on Monday, also reviewed by TechCrunch, to social media platforms, reminding them that compliance with local laws governing obscene and sexually explicit content is a prerequisite for retaining legal immunity from liability for user-generated material. The advisory urged companies to strengthen internal safeguards and warned that failure to do so could result in legal action under India’s IT and criminal laws.
“It is reiterated that failure to comply with the above requirements should be viewed seriously and may result in strict legal consequences against your platform, its responsible administrators and platform users who violate the law, without any further notice,” the order warned.
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The Indian government said non-compliance could result in action being taken against X under the Indian Information Technology Act and criminal laws.
India, one of the world’s largest digital markets, has emerged as a crucial test case for how far governments are willing to go in holding platforms accountable for AI-generated content. Any tightening of law enforcement in the country could have ripple effects on global technology companies operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The order comes as Musk’s At the same time, Grok has increasingly been used by X users to fact-check in real time and comment on news events, making its output sharper — and more politically sensitive — than those of standalone AI tools.
X and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Indian government order.
