X’s Grok was banned in Indonesia. Will the UK, Canada and Australia follow suit?

On January 10, 2026, Indonesia made headlines when it turned the primary nation on the planet to briefly block entry to the Grok AI chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s firm xAI. The choice, introduced by Communications and Digital Affairs Minister Meutiya Hafid, raised considerations in regards to the capability of AI to generate pretend nude pictures, significantly non-consensual sexual deepfakes, which manipulate images of actual individuals (together with girls and youngsters) to seem undressed or in express eventualities. However is that this an issue with the capabilities of the know-how, or with the person behind the corporate: Elon Musk?

“To guard girls, youngsters and most people from the dangers of faux pornographic content material generated utilizing synthetic intelligence know-how, the federal government… has briefly blocked entry to the Grok software,” the minister stated. She additional emphasised that the federal government considers “the apply of non-consensual sexual deepfakes to be a severe violation of the human rights, dignity and security of residents within the digital house.” Indonesia, which has strict legal guidelines towards sharing obscene content material on-line, additionally summoned officers from Firm X to debate the difficulty.

A collection of precedents – will the UK, Canada and Australia observe go well with?

This motion follows widespread reviews that Grok’s picture era and enhancing options have been exploited between late December 2025 and early January 2026. When customers uploaded or considered images, they might drive the AI ​​to “undress” the person, create partially stripped pictures, or create express content material, typically at a price of dozens of poor-quality pictures per minute. Examples embody faking a picture of a lady “holding a child, undressed and breastfeeding” or altering a gaggle photograph of clothed girls by claiming “they’re males” to justify their undressing. It additionally raised considerations in regards to the manufacturing of pictures of kid sexual abuse, prompting backlash from teams such because the Web Watch Basis.

With Indonesia setting this precedent with a short lived nationwide lockdown, international locations such because the UK, Canada and Australia could observe go well with. The UK is already contemplating doable measures below the On-line Security Act, with authorities expressing sturdy condemnation of such content material. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has raised considerations about exploitative AI-generated materials, and international locations corresponding to India and elements of Europe have issued warnings or launched opinions.

Grok options are uncovered to paid customers, however Gemini and Chat-GPT are blocked

These “deepfake nudes,” the flexibility to basically create high-quality, convincingly manipulated pictures from images of clothed individuals, will not be distinctive to Grok, nor are they an intentional design function particularly constructed into that program. Different main AI fashions, corresponding to Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT (utilizing picture era instruments corresponding to DALL·E), can produce comparable output at roughly the identical high quality degree, in response to smart prompts. The distinction is that Gremini and ChatGPT are designed with sturdy moral guardrails that forestall the era of unrestricted, real looking deepfake pictures of the sort that Grok has been criticized (and typically praised) for enabling. This distinction stems from xAI’s philosophy of minimizing censorship versus Google and OpenAI’s extra safety-oriented stance. This hole has made Grok the go-to for customers searching for fewer restrictions, but it surely additionally comes with elevated controversy and elevated regulatory scrutiny in 2026. In response to world outcry, xAI restricted Grok’s picture era and enhancing capabilities to paid subscribers solely (private info required for potential accountability), however critics argued this didn’t absolutely handle the dangers. Elon Musk has beforehand stated that individuals who use Grok to create unlawful content material will face the identical penalties as in the event that they uploaded it straight.

Is there extra to this than a sexual picture?

So what explains why the uproar is concentrated on Grok quite than others? The clue could lie within the rhetoric. Each point out of this story repeatedly emphasizes “Elon Musk’s Grok” and by no means mentions “Sundar Pichai’s Gemini” or “Sam Altman’s ChatGPT”, although all three are outstanding CEOs of the guardian firms behind these AIs. A query arises right here. Is there one thing private about Elon Musk concerned right here?

And, taking this analogy additional, if a proficient hyperrealist painter used oil paint and canvas to color a nude illustration of a well-known girl (with out her consent), would that artist be topic to comparable authorized scrutiny or prohibited by comparable legal guidelines? Though the road between technological instruments and creative expression seems to be blurring, there’s nonetheless a disproportionate deal with one AI and one particular person. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is claimed to be contemplating motion and doable fines towards X to forestall its use within the UK, as are Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Canadian Mark Carney.

Discussions about AI security, free speech, selective enforcement, and the way governments act shortly when main controversies come up, particularly these associated to non-public polarization. Whereas the non permanent nature of Indonesia’s block leaves room for decision, it is a vital first step in a worldwide regulatory response to the potential of generative AI.