January 14, 2026
JAKARTA – From being one of the most coveted tech collaborators, billionaire Elon Musk has fallen out of favor with the government as Indonesia became the first country to ban access to his artificial intelligence platform Grok over sexualized deepfakes.
The scandal around the platform has also renewed focus on Indonesia’s internet safety regulations, with analysts calling for stronger laws, strict sanctions and greater transparency from technology firms.
Grok, developed by Musk’s startup xAI and integrated into X, has been under fire in the past week after internet users used the platform to generate pornographic content from photos posted on the social media platform, also owned by Musk, often without the uploaders’ consent.
Anger and dismay reverberate worldwide as users demand accountability for the victims of the sexualization, in which thousands of women and children were digitally undressed via prompts such as “Remove her clothes” and “Put her in a bikini”.
Responding to the issue, Indonesia, home to the world’s fourth-largest internet user base, announced on Saturday a move to block access to Grok, becoming the first country to do so. Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid described the move as an effort to protect women and children.
In a statement, the minister slammed the digital undressing trend as a “serious violation of human rights, dignity and safety” of internet users. The communications ministry also summoned X to provide further explanation for its AI tool.
On Tuesday, Communications and Digital Ministry’s digital space monitoring director general Alexander Sabar said the ministry had had a meeting with X representatives, during which the platform reasserted its commitment to adhere to the country’s regulation.
“X reassert it will ensure Grok features cannot be used to produce pornographic content, and launch enforcement against accounts found of violating regulations,” Alexander said on Tuesday, as quoted by Antara state news agency.
He added the ministry would monitor and evaluate X’s commitment as part of their work to ensure real and sustainable protection in the digital space. It would also coordinate with law enforcement institutions to make sure the AI would not be misused.
Following Indonesia was Malaysia, after the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission announced on Sunday a suspension against the AI platform following “repeated misuse […] to generate obscene, sexually explicit, indecent, grossly offensive and non-consensual manipulated images”.
Several other countries, including the United Kingdom, have also begun to launch similar investigations against Grok, previously touted as among the least-regulated AI bots.
The 54-year-old billionaire Musk has not made any statements on suspensions against Grok in Indonesia and Malaysia. But he posted on X on Jan. 3, saying: “Anyone using Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content”.
Stronger policies urged
Analysts see the recent Grok scandal as a signal of Indonesia’s increased caution toward Musk’s ventures, after spending years eyeing and courting him into deeper tech cooperation.
Since the administration of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Jakarta had sought to attract Musk’s investments across various projects, including by proposing tax breaks and nickel mining concessions for electric vehicle (EV) battery production. Indonesia also offered Bali as a potential host for an AI center and Biak, Papua, for a spaceport by Musk’s SpaceX.
At the time, the government’s effort to woo Musk drew criticism from the domestic public, with many calling it of having an “unhealthy obsession” to appease Musk.
Despite the efforts, Musk still made no major Tesla or SpaceX investment in Indonesia. His engagements in the country primarily revolved around Starlink satellite-based internet operation.
The Grok case also proved leniency cannot be an option when it comes to AI regulation, analysts said. They urged the government to immediately finalize policies on AI usage in the country and technical regulations for the 2022 Personal Data Protection (PDP) Law.
The law grants citizens more control over their personal information online. It also seeks to spur cybersecurity improvements by requiring data controllers and processors to ensure the rights of data subjects and the security of their data.
But the PDP Law may have shortcomings while facing technologies such as Grok, said Indonesia Cyber Security Forum (ICSF) chair Ardi Sutedja, who urged policymakers to make necessary additions to ensure the policy’s readiness in handling similar cases.
Among the additions included obligations for AI developers to implement automated content filters, establishing a mechanism for explicit consent from photo owners before AI processions and strict sanctions for misuse.
“Regulations must be proactive, not reactive. We can’t wait until thousands of victims have fallen before acting,” Ardi said.
“Countries like the European Union, through its Digital Services Act, have demonstrated that comprehensive regulation of AI technology is both possible and necessary.”