The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) served the notice to the Chief Compliance Officer for India operations of X for failing to meet statutory obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the IT Rules, 2021
The order cited complaints from the public and parliamentary stakeholders that certain content circulating on X violated laws related to decency and obscenity. Representational pic
The Indian Government on Friday issued a stern notice to Elon Musk-led social media platform X, directing it to immediately remove all vulgar, obscene, and unlawful content, particularly that generated by artificial intelligence (AI) app Grok, or face legal action, news agency PTI reported.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) served the notice to the Chief Compliance Officer for India operations of X for failing to meet statutory obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the IT Rules, 2021.
“X is hereby directed to remove or disable access, without delay, to all content already generated or disseminated in violation of applicable laws, in strict compliance with the timelines prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021, without vitiating evidence,” the order dated January 2 stated, according to PTI.
The ministry also asked X to take action against offending content, users, and accounts, and submit a detailed action taken report (ATR) within 72 hours.
The order cited complaints from the public and parliamentary stakeholders that certain content circulating on X violated laws related to decency and obscenity, PTI reported. It highlighted the misuse of the AI service Grok to generate fake accounts, create, publish, or share obscene images or videos of women, including targeting women who post their own photos or videos.
“This reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguards and enforcement mechanisms, and amounts to gross misuse of AI technologies in violation of applicable laws,” the ministry said.
MeitY directs X to review Grok’s AI safeguards to prevent obscene, unlawful content
MeitY directed X to immediately undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural, and governance review of Grok, including prompt-processing, output generation, image handling, and safety guardrails, to prevent the creation or dissemination of content containing nudity, sexualisation, sexually explicit material, or other unlawful content.
The ministry reiterated that non-compliance with these directives may invite strict legal consequences against the platform, its responsible officers, and violating users, under the IT Act, IT Rules, BNSS, BNS, and other applicable laws.
This follows earlier instructions on December 29, when MeitY asked social media platforms to review their compliance frameworks and act promptly against obscene and unlawful content, warning of prosecution for non-compliance.
Earlier in the day, Rajya Sabha member Priyanka Chaturvedi had written a letter to 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.
(With PTI inputs)
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