The Ministry of Electronics and IT has written to Elon Musk-owned social media website X (formerly Twitter), pointing out its failure to moderate AI-generated content on its platform. The ministry highlighted concerns that Grok and other xAI services are being used to generate and distribute indecent and non-consensual images, particularly targeting the dignity and privacy of women. Through the letter, the government also requested a report on the measures taken by the company and the immediate removal of illegal materials. The government also requires X to implement necessary AI guardrails and submit a detailed action report within 72 hours. Otherwise, they risk losing their legal immunity from legal liability. Failure to comply with these instructions “may result in severe legal action, without further notice, against the platform, its responsible officers, and users on the platform who violate the law.”
Read the full “warning” letter to X (Twitter)
To,Chief Compliance Officer, India Operations, X Corp. (formerly Twitter)Subject: Failure to comply with statutory due diligence obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediate Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Ethics) Rules, 2021 and seeks immediate compliance action report to prevent misuse of Al-based services such as ‘Grok’ and other services of xAl to host, generate, publish, transmit, share or upload obscene, nude, indecent and sexually explicit content.It has been reported and expressed from time to time, including through public discourse and representations from various members of Congress, that certain categories of content circulating on the Platform may not comply with applicable laws related to decency and obscenity. In particular, we have observed that a service developed by your company, integrated and made available on the X platform, called “Grok Al” is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish and share indecent images and videos of women in a derogatory or vulgar manner, with the purpose of vulgarly defaming women. Importantly, this is not limited to the creation of fake accounts, but also targets women who host or publish images and videos through prompts, image manipulation, and synthetic output. Such conduct reflects a serious failure of platform-level safeguards and enforcement mechanisms and constitutes gross misuse of artificial intelligence technology in violation of applicable law.2. In this connection and without prejudice to the measures taken or being undertaken by the competent authorities under applicable law, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (“Ministry”/“MeitY”) hereby enacts the Information Technology Act, 2000 (“IT Act”) and the Information Technology (Interim Guidelines and Digital Media Code of Ethics) Rules, 2021 (“IT Rules 2021 We are of the opinion that the regulatory provisions under the 2017 Act (2013) have not been adequately complied with by your company. In particular, those relating to obscene, indecent, indecent, satirical, pedophilic or other illegal or harmful content that may violate current laws.3. The aforementioned acts and omissions are viewed with grave concern as they have the effect of violating the dignity, privacy and safety of women and children, normalizing sexual harassment and exploitation in the digital space, and undermining the statutory due diligence framework applicable to intermediaries operating in India.4. Please take note of the advisory issued by MeitY on 29 December 2025, in particular paragraph 9 thereof. The advisory clearly advises all intermediaries to undertake an immediate review of their internal compliance frameworks, content moderation practices and user enforcement mechanisms, and strictly and continuously comply with the provisions of the IT Act and IT Rules, 2021.5. X, being a significant social media intermediary, hereby reminds that compliance with the IT Act and the IT Rules, 2021 is not optional and the statutory exemption under Section 79 of the IT Act is conditional on strict compliance with due diligence obligations including but not limited to Regulations 3 and 4 of the IT Rules, 2021.• Regulation 4(9): Obligation to provide further information, including explanations and reports of actions taken, as the Department may require.• Regulation 4(1)(a): Appointment and Effective Functioning of a Chief Compliance Officer. Responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.• Regulations 3(1Kb) and 3(1(d)): Obligation to use reasonable efforts to prevent the hosting, publication, transmission or sharing of unlawful content and to promptly remove or disable access to information that is obscene, pornographic, pedophilic, harmful to women and children, or otherwise unlawful. Obligation to remove or disable access within strictly prescribed time limits upon receipt of actual knowledge through court order or well-founded suggestion from the appropriate government or its authorized authority.• Regulation 3(1Xi): Obligation to provide information and render assistance lawfully required by the Government or any authorized agency of the Government, within strictly specified time limits, for the purpose of establishing an identity under the law for the time being in force, or for the prevention, detection, investigation or prosecution of a crime. and• Regulation 3(2), Regulation 4(4): Obligation to develop an accessible reporting and grievance redressal system under Regulation 3(2). and the obligation under Rule 4(4) to deploy additional technology-based measures, including automated tools and other mechanisms, to proactively prevent the distribution of such obscene, indecent and indecent content and ensure timely compliance with takedown requirements.• Regulation 3(2)(b): Obligation to disable access to or remove content that appears to be in the nature of material that depicts sexual activity or conduct of, or impersonation of, an individual within 24 hours of receipt of a complaint from the affected individual or that individual’s representative.6. We reiterate that hosting, producing, publishing, transmitting, sharing, or uploading obscene, nude, lewd, sexually explicit, vulgar, pedophilic content, or content that violates the privacy of others, including bodily privacy, or that is otherwise unlawful, including through Al-enabled systems and tools, will result in serious penalties under multiple laws. Section 67B of the IT Act. Relevant provisions of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanita, 2023 (“BNS”).• Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986.• Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act 2012.• Youth (Harmful Publications) Act 1956.• Section 85 of the IT Act: Any offense committed by a company in violation of the IT Act and the rules thereunder, including the IT Rules, 2021. and• Other applicable laws currently in force.7. Further, particular attention is drawn to Section 33 of the People’s Republic of India Act, 2023 (BNSS), which imposes a statutory duty to report certain offenses to the appropriate authorities. This includes crimes related to organized crime, including cybercrime, as defined in section 111 of the BNS. Failure to report such violations despite knowledge or reasonable suspicion may result in unique penalties under the BNSS.8. You are therefore advised to strictly refrain from hosting, displaying, uploading, publishing, transmitting, storing or sharing on the Platform any content that is obscene, pornographic, indecent, indecent, sexually explicit, pedophilic or otherwise prohibited by the laws for the time being in force. Failure to comply with such due diligence obligations shall result in forfeiture of immunity from liability under Section 79 of the IT Act and shall also be liable for consequential actions provided for under the IT Act and laws including the BNS.9. Accordingly, in exercise of the powers of the Central Government under the IT Act and IT Rules, 2021, X is hereby directed to:(a) Immediately initiate a comprehensive technical, procedural and governance level review of the Al-based application ‘Grok’, including instant processing, output generation (responses generated using large-scale language models (LLMs)), image processing, and safety guardrails, to ensure that the application does not generate, promote, or promote nudity, sexual content, sexually explicit content, or other illegal content in any form;(b) immediately enforce your Terms of Service, acceptable use policies, and usage restrictions, including strong deterrent measures such as suspension, termination, and other enforcement actions against violating users and accounts;(c) without delay, remove or disable access to all content already generated or distributed in violation of applicable laws, without prejudice to the evidence in any way and strictly in accordance with the schedule set out in the IT Rules, 2021;(d) Submit a detailed action report (ATR) containing the above aspects to the Department at the earliest and in any event no later than 72 hours from the date of publication of this letter; In particular, it includes:• Certain technical and organizational measures adopted or proposed in connection with the Grok application.• The role and oversight of the chief compliance officer.• Actions taken against offending content, users, and accounts. Mechanisms introduced to ensure compliance with mandatory reporting requirements under Article 33 of the BNSS. and(e) ensure continuous, demonstrable and auditable compliance with all due diligence obligations under the IT Act, 2021 and the IT Rules; Failure to do so will result in loss of liability immunity under section 79 of the IT Act and consequential measures as provided for in the IT Act and the law, including the BNS.10. We reiterate that violation of the above requirements shall be seriously considered and strict legal action under the IT Act, IT Rules, BNSS, BNS and other applicable laws may be imposed against the Platform, its Responsible Officers and Users on the Platform who violate the law without further notice.11. This is subject to the approval of the competent authority within the Ministry and does not affect other measures taken by the government or law enforcement agencies under the laws for the time being in force.Sincerely,(Ajit Kumar)MeitY Cyber Law Joint Secretary
