Malaysia announced on Friday that access to Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot has been restored nearly two weeks after the AI tool was blocked over concerns about AI-generated sexualised deepfakes.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) suspended the service on X and xAI on January 11 and appointed solicitors to initiate “legal proceedings,” without providing details at the time.
In a statement on Friday, the commission said: “The temporary access restriction on the use of the Grok application on the X platform has been lifted effective today.”
The move followed “confirmation of the implementation of additional preventive and security measures by the platform,” the state media watchdog added, though it did not specify the exact measures taken.
Malaysian officials and X representatives met on Wednesday to clarify the platform’s preventive measures and ensure compliance with Malaysian law, the MCMC said. X reportedly confirmed that the required security measures had been implemented, and authorities will continue monitoring compliance.
Last week, Malaysia had threatened legal action against X and xAI if they failed to address the concerns.
The controversy stems from Grok generating an estimated three million sexualised images of women and children in just a few days, according to researchers, highlighting the scale of explicit content that sparked global outrage.
In response, X announced last week that it would “geoblock the ability” of all Grok and X users to create images of people in “bikinis, underwear, and similar attire” in jurisdictions where such actions are illegal.
AFP
