Indonesia blocks access to Grok over non-consensual sexual deepfakes

Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
2h ago
Indonesia temporarily blocked access to Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot over the risk of fake, AI-generated pornographic content and non-consensual sexual deepfakes.
Indonesia blocks access to Grok over non-consensual sexual deepfakes
A What happened
Indonesia temporarily blocked access to the Grok application to protect women, children, and the public from risks of fake pornographic content generated using artificial intelligence. Communication and digital affairs minister Meutya Hafid said non-consensual sexual deepfakes violate human rights, dignity, and citizens’ security in the digital space. Indonesia’s culture and digital affairs ministry summoned X officials to discuss the matter. Grok limited image generation and editing features on X to paying subscribers, and Keir Starmer’s office called that measure “insulting” and “not a solution.”

Key insights

  • 1

    Indonesia framed non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a human-rights issue: Meutya Hafid said non-consensual sexual deepfakes are a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and citizens’ security in the digital space.

  • 2

    UK government rejected paywalling Grok image features as a remedy: Keir Starmer’s office said limiting Grok’s image features to paying subscribers was “insulting” to victims and “not a solution,” and said it made unlawful image creation a premium service.

Takeaways

Indonesia blocked Grok and summoned X officials while other governments and campaigners criticized Grok’s handling of deepfake image generation.

Topics

Technology & Innovation Artificial Intelligence Social Media World & Politics Policy & Regulation Human Rights

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