Indonesia warns it may ban X over obscene content involving minors

By Islamuddin Sajid

ISTANBUL (AA) - Pressure is mounting on US social media platform X as Indonesia on Wednesday warned the tech giant that it could be banned in the Southeast Asian nation over obscene content involving minors.

Jakarta’s demand that X comply with the country’s laws comes after the United Kingdom and the European Commission raised similar complaints against the social media platform.

Indonesia’s Communications Ministry said initial investigations indicate that Grok artificial intelligence does not yet have explicit and adequate regulations in place to prevent the production and distribution of pornographic content based on real photos of citizens.

“This situation has the potential to violate the right to privacy and the right to one’s image, particularly when a person’s photo is manipulated or disseminated without their consent,” said Alexander Sabar, director general of Indonesia’s Digital Space Supervision.

The ministry said all digital services operating in the country are required to comply with Indonesian laws and regulations, warning that if violations and uncooperative behavior are found, administrative sanctions could be imposed. These may include the termination of access to Grok artificial intelligence services and the X platform.

Under Indonesian law, creating or distributing pornographic content is prohibited, with offenders facing between six months and 10 years in prison or fines.

Indonesia’s reaction came after reports in France that the Paris prosecutor’s office launched a preliminary investigation into Grok over allegations that it produced sexually explicit deepfake images of minors.

On Tuesday, United Kingdom Technology Secretary Liz Kendall urged Elon Musk’s X platform to urgently address the use of its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok to create non-consensual sexualized deepfake images of women and girls.

Earlier on Monday, the European Commission said it was “very seriously” examining X’s artificial intelligence chatbot following reports that it generated sexually explicit content involving minors, describing the alleged outputs as “appalling” and “disgusting.”

On Sunday, the US based social media issued a warning to users not to use Grok to generate illegal content, including child sexual abuse material.