Elon Musk’s blogging platform has reportedly bowed to the pressure put on it by Indian lawmakers, promising to work with Indian laws. According to sources close to the matter, after a few rounds of communications, the platform mentioned that more than 3,500 pieces of content have been blocked and over 600 accounts deleted.
The action stemmed from a call from the Indian government on the platform to fix its chatbot Grok over its use to generate explicit and obscene content of women. In a previous report, Cryptopolitan mentioned that the country urged the platform to make immediate changes to its chatbot. The chatbot was used to create several AI-altered images of women, one of which has drawn criticism not only from India but from leaders around the world.
X promises to work with Indian laws
At the time, the Indian government gave the platform a 72-hour ultimatum to address the concerns raised. It also asked the platform to submit an action-taken report detailing the steps it has taken to prevent the hosting, generation, and dissemination of obscene content. The IT Ministry of India warned that failure to follow these directives could see the platform lose its “safe harbor” protections. All things now point to the blogging platform fulfilling these conditions, going by reports from India.
The company mentioned that going forward, it will not allow users to generate obscene imagery, adding that it will work with Indian laws. “X has accepted its mistake and has said it will work as per Indian laws. The company has blocked around 3,500 pieces of content, and over 600 accounts were deleted. Going forward, X will not allow obscene imagery,” a senior official at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said.
News had filtered into mainstream media on Friday that the Indian government was considering taking legal action against Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot of the platform, noting that the responses sent by the company were not satisfactory and therefore had to send another notice seeking further information. Sources mentioned that the company had listed their policies in the responses, instead of listing the steps they have taken, which the Indian government considered not good enough.
MeitY asks X to provide additional insight
On January 2, MeitY mentioned specifically that if X failed to put the activities of its platform under control, regulatory actions could follow. However, as part of its response to the country, the company asked for a two-day extension, which MeitY declined and allowed only 24 hours to respond. However, instead of highlighting what they were doing to combat the issue, X highlighted the kind of control they had concerning things like non-consensual nudity and synthetic content.
X also outlined the processes that they follow in these cases, noting that they have taken some actions. However, the platform refused to explain how it happened and what actions they took. Therefore, the Indian government sent out another notice asking the platform to provide the needed information or risk a legal battle. The country has warned the platform that it could face legal actions under Section 79 of the IT Act.
Meanwhile, India is not the only country trying to initiate legal actions against X due to the ongoing issues. According to a previous Cryptopolitan report, Australian PM Anthony Albanese has urged the platform to do something about the menace, noting that they have to make social media better for people. In addition, Indonesia has temporarily suspended Grok in the country due to the same issue, urging the platform to find a fix for the chatbot.
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