Elon Musk’s X to remove illegal content, permanently ban offending users

X said it will remove illegal content, suspend offending accounts and cooperate with authorities, including for AI tool Grok misuse, after India’s IT ministry ordered takedowns of obscene material, sought action reports, and warned of legal action for non-compliance nationwide

New Delhi: Microblogging site X will act against illegal content by removing it, permanently suspending accounts that uploaded the material and working with local governments as required, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform said on Sunday.

The statement from the Global Government Affairs account of X was issued hours after it said people using the platform’s AI service, Grok, to create illegal content will face the same consequences as those uploading illegal content.

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“Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Musk said on X in response to a post on “inappropriate images”.

Global government affairs at X reiterated Musk’s stance on illegal content.

“We take action against illegal content on X, including Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), by removing it, permanently suspending accounts, and working with local governments and law enforcement as necessary.

“Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content,” Global Government Affairs on X said.

The Global Government Affairs handle also shared a link for X rules, which allows sharing of “consensually produced and distributed adult nudity or sexual behaviour, provided it’s properly labelled and not prominently displayed”.

The Indian government has found vulgar, obscene and other unlawful content being uploaded on X that are in violation of local laws.

The statement from Musk and Global Government Affairs follows the direction from the Ministry of Electronics and IT (Meity), issued on January 2, to immediately remove all vulgar, obscene and unlawful content, especially generated by AI app Grok, or face action under the law.

Meity has directed X to take action against offending content, users and accounts.

The ministry asked the US-based social media firm to submit a detailed action taken report (ATR) within 72 hours from the date when the order was issued.

The government has received from time to time, including through public discourse and representations from various parliamentary stakeholders, that certain categories of content circulating on X may not be in compliance with applicable laws relating to decency and obscenity, the order said.

Earlier, Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi had written to the Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw seeking urgent intervention on increasing incidents of the AI app Grok being misused to create vulgar photos of women and post them on social media.

The order said that “Grok AI” service, developed by X, is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatory or vulgar manner to indecently denigrate them.

On December 29, Meity asked social media firms to immediately review their compliance framework and act against obscene and unlawful content on their platform, failing which they may face prosecution under the law of the land.

The advisory came after Meity noticed that social media platforms have not been strictly acting on obscene, vulgar, inappropriate, and unlawful content.