On Sunday, January 11, 2026, Malaysia briefly blocked entry to Grok, becoming a member of a rising variety of international locations taking motion after the AI chatbot confronted world criticism for permitting customers to create and share sexualized photographs.
xAI, the Elon Musk-led firm behind Grok, introduced on Thursday, January 8, 2026, that it might restrict picture era and enhancing options to paying subscribers, addressing lapses that beforehand allowed customers on ‘X’ to supply sexualized content material of others, usually with out consent.
Indonesia turned the primary nation to briefly block the bot on Saturday, January 10, 2026.
In its Sunday assertion, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Fee (MCMC) mentioned the restriction was imposed following repeated misuse of Grok “to generate obscene, sexually specific, indecent, grossly offensive, and non-consensual manipulated photographs, together with content material involving ladies and minors.”
MCMC famous that it had issued notices to ‘X’ and xAI this month, urging the implementation of efficient technical and moderation safeguards. Nevertheless, the responses primarily relied on user-initiated reporting and didn’t adequately deal with the dangers related to the AI instruments’ design and operation.
“MCMC considers this inadequate to forestall hurt or guarantee authorized compliance,” the company mentioned.
In accordance with Reuters, xAI responded to a request for remark with an automatic message stating, “Legacy Media Lies,” whereas X didn’t instantly reply to inquiries.
The Malaysian authority added that entry to Grok would stay restricted till sturdy safeguards had been carried out, though it expressed willingness to interact with the businesses.
As a Muslim-majority nation, Malaysia enforces strict legal guidelines on on-line content material, together with prohibitions on obscene and pornographic materials.
