Social media platform X has confirmed that its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok, can no longer be misused to generate or edit harmful content involving pornography, sexual material, or incest, following tighter regulatory controls on its image editing and video generation features.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the confirmation was conveyed to him by X’s representatives for the Asia-Pacific region during a meeting at Menara Komunikasi today.
“Users are no longer able to edit images or videos to produce obscene or inappropriate material, as had occurred previously,” he said.
He added that those present at the hour-long meeting included himself, Deputy Minister Teo Nie Ching, and senior officials from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). Fahmi said further clarification on the matter would be provided in Parliament tomorrow.
The minister welcomed X’s decision to visit Putrajaya specifically to discuss the issue and noted the platform’s commitment to closer cooperation with his ministry and the MCMC under the Safe Internet Campaign. He highlighted that these efforts aim to make the platform safer for all segments of society.
Fahmi also shared that current MCMC data showed that takedown requests involving content on X stood at about 50% as of today. While he described this as a moderate figure, he noted that it does not imply the absence of issues, and called the platform’s recent actions a positive development.
He said his team had been instructed to establish closer cooperation channels with X to ensure a safer online environment, particularly for children and families.
On Jan 11, the MCMC imposed a temporary restriction on access to Grok for users in Malaysia following repeated misuse of the AI to generate pornographic and sexually explicit content. Following the restriction, Fahmi said the MCMC was reviewing possible legal action against X for Grok’s failure to comply with Malaysian online safety laws.
