Indonesia ‘conditionally’ lifts ban on Grok

Indonesia has followed Malaysia and the Philippines in lifting a ban on xAI’s chatbot Grok.

The Southeast Asian countries banned Grok after it was used to create a flood of nonconsensual, sexualized imagery on X (now a subsidiary of xAI), including images of real women and minors. In late December and January, Grok was used to create at least 1.8 million sexualized images of women, according to separate analyses by The New York Times and the Center for Countering Digital Hate.

In a statement, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs said that it was lifting the ban after X sent a letter “outlining concrete steps for service improvements and the prevention of misuse” (translation via The New York Times).

Alexander Sabar, the ministry’s director general of digital space monitoring, said the ban is only being lifted “conditionally” and could be reinstated if “further violations are discovered.”

Malaysia and the Philippines lifted their bans on January 23.

Grok’s deepfakes have spurred criticism and investigations — but only a few outright bans — from governments around the world. In the United States, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office was investigating xAI and had sent a cease-and-desist letter ordering the company to take immediate action to end the production of these images.

xAI appears to have taken some steps to restrict Grok’s capabilities, including limiting its AI image generation feature to paying subscribers on X. CEO Elon Musk has insisted, “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content” and said he is “not aware of any naked underage images generated by Grok.”

Documents released by the Justice Department on Friday around the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein include at least 16 emails between Musk and Epstein in 2012 and 2013, with Musk asking to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island and wondering about the “wildest party on your island.” Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008.

xAI, meanwhile, is reportedly in talks to merge with two of Musk’s other companies, SpaceX and Tesla, ahead of a SpaceX IPO.

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Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.

You can contact or verify outreach from Anthony by emailing anthony.ha@techcrunch.com.

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