The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has temporarily blocked Grok, the AI chatbot embedded in the social media platform, X. The decision comes after global backlash that emerged, claiming that the chatbot’s image creation feature created sexually explicit images of women and children from simple text prompts.
“MCMC had issued notices to X Corp and xAI LLC on Jan 3 and 8, demanding, amongst others, the implementation of effective technical and moderation safeguards to prevent AI-generated content that may contravene Malaysian law, including Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act.”
The restrictions are temporary, or at least, it seems restricted to family-friendly prompts, while the more “vulgar” prompts – asking it to generate salacious images of famous adult actresses or sexually inappropriate pictures of famous actresses – were simply not generated. To add an additional layer of fairness, we’re not subscribed to the Premium version of Grok or X, so the number of prompts we are allowed is limited.
On that note, Grok had appeared to deflect the criticism with a new monetisation policy, stating on X that image generation and editing were now “limited to paying subscribers”, alongside a link to a premium subscription.
While the suspension of Grok is understandable on several levels, it feels a little counterproductive. As a platform, X still allows users to openly and freely post illicit and NSFW content, as well as search for it. If you don’t believe us, you can go ahead and try searching the platform for whoever is the most popular adult content creator at the moment. To be clear, we’re not advising our recommending that you do this, but rather, just making a point about it.
