The government had cautioned X’s Al application Grok to ensure it does not generate, promote or facilitate sexually explicit content

The government on Tuesday gave X (formerly Twitter) additional time till January 7 (Wednesday) evening to submit a detailed action taken report (ATR) after the platform was warned over indecent and sexually-explicit content being generated through misuse of artificial intelligence (AI)-based services like ‘Grok’ and other tools.

On January 2, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had cautioned X’s Al application Grok, to ensure it does not generate, promote or facilitate content which contains nudity, sexualisation, sexually explicit or otherwise unlawful content in any form whatsoever, after Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP, Priyanka Chaturvedi writing to Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, urging immediate intervention over the alleged abuse of Grok that violates women’s privacy.

“We have extended the deadline till tomorrow (Wednesday) 5pm. They asked for three days but we limited it,” a senior official at MeitY told businessline.

Comprehensive review

MeitY in its directive on Friday (January 2) to Chief Compliance Officer, X, India Operations, had told the company to immediately undertake a comprehensive technical, procedural and governance-level review of Grok, including its prompt-processing, output-generation (responses generated using large language models, image handling and safety guardrails, so as to avoid such content.

“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 the evidence in any manner,” it had said in the directive.

MeitY had asked X to submit a detailed ATR to the Ministry including covering the above aspects, at the earliest and in any case not later than 72 hours from the date of issuance of the directives, covering specific technical and organisational measures adopted or proposed in relation to the Grok application; the role and oversight exercised by the Chief Compliance Officer; actions taken against offending content, users and accounts; and mechanisms put in place to ensure compliance with the mandatory reporting requirement under section 33 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).

Serious offences

Section 33 of the BNSS, 2023, mandates that any person aware of certain serious offences under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) must, without delay, inform the nearest Magistrate or police officer, with failure to do so punishable if there’s no reasonable excuse, shifting the burden of proof.

MeitY also cautioned the Elon Musk-owned company to ensure ongoing, demonstrable and auditable compliance with all due diligence obligations under the IT Act and the IT Rules, 2021, failing which appropriate action may be initiated, including the loss of the exemption from liability under section 79 of the IT Act, and consequential action as provided under any law including the IT Act and the BNS.

Published on January 6, 2026