The Union government on January 2 issued a stern notice to social media platform X, directing it to immediately take down vulgar and unlawful content, with specific reference to material allegedly generated through its AI tool, Grok. The platform has been warned of legal action in case of non-compliance.
The notice, issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), was addressed to X’s Chief Compliance Officer for India. It cited the platform’s alleged failure to fulfil statutory due diligence requirements under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
Calling for urgent action, the ministry directed X to “remove or disable access, without delay,” to all content already generated or circulated in violation of applicable laws. It further stressed that the removal must be carried out strictly within the timelines prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021, and “without vitiating the evidence in any manner.”
The government has also asked the platform to submit an action taken report, detailing the immediate measures being adopted to prevent the hosting, generation, publication, transmission or sharing of obscene, nude, indecent or sexually explicit content, particularly through the misuse of AI-based services such as Grok.
The order warned that any failure to comply would be treated seriously and could invite strict legal consequences. It added that action may be initiated against the platform, its responsible officers as well as users found violating the law, “without any further notice.”
X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, has so far not issued a public response to the notice.