The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued a warning to the Elon Musk-owned social media platform
The government has given the platform an ultimatum of 72 hours to submit its Action Taken Report (ATR), failing which the platform will face severe legal action and will also lose its “safe harbor” protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
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This is due to the misuse of the Grok AI facility, reported by the Centre. A four-page letter was written to the Chief Compliance Officer of X, indicating that users are creating fake accounts to host derogatory images and videos of women.
The letter pointed out that it is noticed that this tool is being forced to “minimise clothing” and thereby sexualise women in the picture, which actually constitutes a grave disregard for their dignity and privacy.
The ministry pointed out the failure of
Safe Harbor in Jeopardy: Non-compliance could lead to X losing its safe harbor status, which would put it at risk to be held responsible for all third-party content that is currently published on its service.
Broad Legal Action: The government issued a warning of legal action in relation to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the Indecent Representation of Women Act, and the POCSO Act (in cases of children).
Besides the initial removal, the Center has also asked X to conduct an urgent technical and governance-based review of Grok. These include:
Examination of Grok’s architectural design, including its structure
Prompt Filtering: Enhancing protections against the production of offensive or illegal synthetic media.
accountability: Disciplinary action, like permanent suspension, against violators who misuse the AI tool.
Evidence Preservation: Blocking access to illegal material without “vitiating the evidence” that might be relevant to possible criminal proceedings.
This action has been preceded by another letter, this time from an MP in the Rajya Sabha named Priyanka Chaturvedi, to IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, pointing out the growing trend of “digital undressing” practices against women on this platform.
IT Minister Vaishwani again emphasized on Friday that social networking sites bear responsibility for content on their platforms and that “intervention” was also necessary to provide all users with a trustworthy internet.
