Indonesia has temporarily blocked Grok after the Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based chatbot application generated sexually explicit images based on X users’ requests.
The Indonesian Minister of Communication and Digital, Meutya Hafid, emphasised that the temporary blocking of access to Grok is a government effort to protect women and children in the country. Hafid stated that the practice of sexual deepfakes without consent constitutes a serious violation of human rights and the dignity of citizens.
“In order to protect women, children, and the entire community from the risk of fake pornographic content generated using Artificial Intelligence technology, the [Indonesian] government is temporarily blocking access to the Grok application,” said the Minister in a statement on Saturday, the 10th of January.
This access termination policy has been implemented based on the authority stipulated in the Minister of Communication and Informatics Regulation Number 5 of 2020 concerning Private Electronic System Providers. Under this regulation, every platform is required to ensure that its services do not contain or facilitate content prohibited by Indonesian law.
In a joint Instagram post published the following Sunday (the 11th of January), Hafid and the Indonesian Minister of Communication and Digital reiterated, “The government, through the Ministry of Communication and Digital, has temporarily suspended access to the Grok application. This measure was taken to protect women, children and the public from the risks of Artificial Intelligence-based fake pornographic content, including non-consensual sexual deepfakes. The Ministry of Communication and Digital has also requested Platform X to provide clarification regarding the negative impacts of using Grok, in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. A safe digital space requires our collective efforts. If you encounter problematic content, please report it immediately to aduankonten.id.”
In addition to service blocking, criminal penalties also threaten users who create or distribute deepfake content. Brigadier General Himawan Bayu Aji, Director of Cyber Crime at the Indonesian National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency, emphasised that manipulating electronic data without the owner’s consent is a criminal act. This applies to users of Grok and other AI applications used for similar purposes.
“As long as it can be clarified that it is electronic data manipulation, then it is a criminal offence,” Aji previously said on Wednesday, the 7th of January.