The IT Ministry is examining the response submitted by X following a government directive to crack down on the misuse of its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok for creating sexualised and obscene images of women and minors, sources said.

X had been given extended time until Wednesday, 5 PM, to submit a detailed Action Taken Report after a stern warning was issued to the Elon Musk-led social media platform over indecent and sexually explicit content being generated through the misuse of AI-based services such as Grok and other tools.

Sources told PTI that X has submitted its response, which is currently under examination.

The details of the submission were not immediately known.

On Sunday, X’s Safety handle said the platform takes action against illegal content, including Child Sexual Abuse Material, by removing such content, 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,” X had said, reiterating the stance taken by Musk on illegal content.

On January 2, the IT Ministry pulled up X and directed it to immediately remove all vulgar, obscene and unlawful content, especially content generated by Grok, which is X’s built-in artificial intelligence interface, or face action under the law.

In its directive issued on Friday, the ministry asked the US-based social media firm to submit a detailed action taken report within 72 hours, outlining specific technical and organisational measures adopted or proposed in relation to the Grok application.

The report was also to detail the role and oversight exercised by the Chief Compliance Officer, actions taken against offending content, users and accounts, and mechanisms to ensure compliance with the mandatory reporting requirement under Indian laws.

In its ultimatum, the ministry noted that Grok AI, developed by X and integrated on the platform, 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.

“Importantly, this is not limited to creation of fake accounts but also targets women who host or publish their images or videos, through prompts, image manipulation and synthetic outputs,” the ministry said.

It asserted that such conduct reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguards and enforcement mechanisms and amounts to gross misuse of artificial intelligence technologies in violation of stipulated laws.

The government made it clear to X that compliance with the Information Technology Act and related rules is not optional and that statutory exemptions under Section 79 of the IT Act, which deals with safe harbour and immunity from liability for online intermediaries, are conditional upon strict observance of due diligence obligations.

“Accordingly, you are advised to strictly desist from the hosting, displaying, uploading, publication, transmission, storage, sharing of any content on your platform that is obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, paedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under any law...,” the ministry said.

The government warned X that any failure to observe due diligence obligations would result in the loss of exemption from liability under Section 79 of the IT Act, and that the platform would also be liable for consequential action under other laws, including the IT Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The ministry also asked X to enforce its user terms of service and AI usage restrictions, including strong deterrent measures such as suspension, termination and other enforcement actions against violating users and accounts.

X was further 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 platform has drawn regulatory scrutiny beyond India. In the United Kingdom, Ofcom, the independent communications regulator, said in a recent social media post, “We are aware of serious concerns raised about a feature on Grok on X that produces undressed images of people and sexualised images of children”.

“We have made urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK. Based on their response, we will undertake a swift assessment to determine whether there are potential compliance issues that warrant investigation,” Ofcom said.