Elon Musk’s X in legal trouble: List of countries taking action over Grok AI deepfakes

Elon Musk’s X has landed in legal trouble worldwide over Grok AI tool safety concerns, which is facing global backlash due to explicit deepfakes and sexualized images.

Given the violent and obscene imagery, the various countries are taking legal actions and imposing scrutiny against the social media platform.

Malaysia

Recently, Malaysia has announced plans to launch a legal action against X on the grounds of user safety concerns.

According to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Grok AI tool has largely been misused to generate and spread harmful content, including sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive, and deepfakes.

“Content allegedly involving women and minors is of serious concern... Such conduct contravenes Malaysian law and undermines the entities’ stated safety commitments,” the commission said in a statement.

Malaysia’s regulator said it issued notices to X and xAI this month to remove deplorable content. Unfortunately, no action has been taken.

Indonesia

Earlier this week, besides Malaysia, Indonesia has taken steps to restrict Grok access to users, aiming to avoid online abuse.

UK

On Monday, the UK’s watchdog Ofcom has also launched an investigation into X over Grok AI’s highly disturbing deepfakes.

According to the regulator, X violated its duty to protect the rights of British people and made them susceptible to illegal and harmful content.

Ofcom is investigating X under the Online Safety Act, suggesting possible punishments for policy violations.

“We have decided to open a formal investigation to establish whether X has failed to comply with its legal obligations under the Online Safety Act,” added Ofcom.

If found guilty, the regulator can impose hefty penalties on X up to 10 percent of its global revenue or £18 million.

France

French officials have also reported the social media firm to regulators and prosecutors. The country also alerted French media regulator Arcom to assess the platform’s compliance with the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

The EU

The European Commission has ordered X to retain all internal Grok related data and documents until the end of 2026 as it probes potential systematic failures.

Germany

Wolfram Weimar, Germany’s media minister, urged the EU to take legal actions against the illegal content, alleging the issue risked turning into the “industrialisation of sexual harassment.”

Australia

Australia also launched an investigation into Grok-generated deepfakes and “digitally undressed” images, calling it outright violation of legal policies under Australian law. The PM also called for establishing online safety measures.

Response of Elon Musk after global scrutiny

Earlier this week, xAI restricted the users’ access to image generation function by switching off the feature in Grok.

According to Musk, making illegal content on Grok would be equivalent to uploading the highly compromised content. Whoever does that would face severe consequences.

However, the CEO of SpaceX also censured the UK government for threats to ban X, calling it an attack on freedom of speech.