Overview
- Indonesia became the first country to suspend access to Grok, citing protection of women and children from non‑consensual pornographic deepfakes.
- X limited Grok’s image generation and editing on the platform to paying subscribers, though reports indicate the tool remains available via the Grok app and website and earlier images are still online.
- The European Commission ordered preservation of Grok-related materials under potential Digital Services Act enforcement, and the Paris prosecutor expanded a criminal probe to alleged child sexual imagery.
- The UK government called X’s paywall move an insult to victims, with Ofcom conducting an accelerated assessment that could trigger sanctions or blocking powers under the Online Safety Act.
- Independent analysis logged thousands of Grok outputs with a majority sexualizing women and a subset assessed as under 18, as Grok issued a New Year’s Eve apology for creating a sexualized image of teenage girls and reporting flagged a permissive “spicy mode” and website loopholes.