Note: On Friday morning, X restricted Grok image creation to paying users only.
We need one of those “__ days without incident” signs for X, because we’re just 9 days into the New Year and we’re already on track for another international incident sparked by Elon Musk’s freewheeling approach to technological development.
As has been widely reported, X is currently under scrutiny in several regions due to xAI’s Grok chatbot producing sexualized images, of anyone, young or old, at the request of X users.
The fact that Grok image generation is so readily available within the X composer has exacerbated the problem, however, as reported by Wired, it’s actually far worse on the dedicated Grok app, where thousands of non-consensual nudes are being generated every day.
Indeed, according to research commissioned by Bloomberg, Grok, at one stage early in the New Year, was producing over 6,700 images every hour that would be categorized as “sexually suggestive of nudifying.”
Elon Musk has acknowledged the issue, but has thus far put the onus back onto users, saying that any illegal content that’s produced by Grok is the responsibility of the requesting user, and that those who do so will be dealt with.
But that’s not really addressing the concern, and now, X could be facing full bans, in several markets.
Thus far:
- India’s IT Industry has issued X with an official order to take “corrective action” to address Grok’s image generation concerns relating to “obscene, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic, or otherwise prohibited under law” material
- Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission has issued a public statement urging X to ensure that its AI tools align with local laws
- Indonesia’s Communications Ministry has threatened to ban X and Grok if the issues with “degrading pictures of women and children” are not addressed
- French authorities have announced an official investigation into sexually explicit deepfakes on X
- Britain’s Ofcom has issued a request to X to outline what steps it’s taking “to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the U.K.”
All of these could lead to full bans of X in each region, while some have also questioned why Google and Apple are continuing to host X in their app stores, despite banning other nudify apps.
In the U.K. specifically, Prime Minister Kier Starmer has noted that “all options are on the table” in addressing concerns with X’s latest controversy, including a full ban of the app if a solution is not provided.
The threat of expanded action is very real, and with X refusing to provide further clarity on its actions to address such, other than passing responsibility onto users, it seems that we could be on a path to another international diplomacy crisis on the back of a social media related issue.
Which is becoming almost a regular occurrence, with TikTok also still at the center of a foreign trade standoff between China and the U.S.
Elon Musk’s connections with the U.S. government also complicate matters here. The last time the EU Commission issued X with a penalty (over transparency violations, as well as misleading verification indicators in the app), Elon called on the U.S. government for support in opposing the fine.
And he got it. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio both criticized the penalty, labeling it “an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments.”
The White House didn’t, however, take the next step, which would involve trade sanctions in response to such, but U.S. President Donald Trump has voiced his support for measures that address any perceived inequality in foreign markets, including fines for social media platforms.
With that in mind, and with the U.S. looking to reassert its power on foreign policy, Elon Musk could call on the White House once again, if X actually does end up getting banned in any region, and could force the issue, leading to an expanded impacts on trade and diplomacy.
It still seems so strange that the bird app, which made “tweeting” a synonym for short messages, could be central to international political stability. But this is where we’re at in 2026, with the unrestrained horniness of X users setting us on a path to conflict.
Good times.
The expectation is that X will eventually look to limit image generation via Grok in response to these concerns, alleviating any further blow up, but there is always a chance that Elon will take to the “free speech” soapbox to oppose any update.
We’ll have to wait and see how it plays out, but maybe, X could be once again facing bans due to Elon’s stances.
