Govt orders X review of Grok over explicit content

New Delhi: The government has asked Elon Musk-led social media platform X to carry out a comprehensive ‘technical, procedural and governance-level’ review of its artificial intelligence-based chatbot, Grok, and submit a detailed action-taken report to the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) within 72 hours.

Meity’s cyber law division said in a letter that X must also enforce its terms of service and AI-usage restrictions, and take ‘strong deterrent measures’, including suspending, terminating or taking other action against accounts using Grok to create sexually explicit images of women and children.

The ministry also asked X 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 Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, without vitiating the evidence in any manner’.

If X fails to comply with these directions, appropriate action will be taken against the platform, including ‘the loss of the exemption from liability under Section 79 of the IT Act, and consequential action as provided (for) under any law including the IT Act and the BNS (Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita)’, the ministry said.

Earlier in the day, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said social media platforms needed to take responsibility for the content on their platforms.

‘Today, social media is such a big influence in our society. They must take responsibility for content. There should be intervention on the content on these platforms.’