The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has directed X (formerly Twitter) to take immediate action over its alleged failure to comply with statutory obligations under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and related laws. 

The ministry’s notice raises concerns over the misuse of AI-powered services, including ‘Grok’, for generating and sharing obscene, nude, indecent, sexually explicit, or otherwise unlawful content. X has been asked to submit a detailed Action Taken Report (ATR) within 72 hours.

Alleged Misuse of AI to Target Women

In its letter to the Chief Compliance Officer of X Corp India, MeitY cited reports and parliamentary representations that the platform’s AI services were being used to create fake accounts and generate derogatory images and videos of women. 

The ministry noted that the misuse extends to manipulating content uploaded by women themselves, often sexualising images or videos through AI prompts and synthetic outputs. According to the notice, such conduct violates privacy and safety, normalises online harassment, and reflects a failure of platform-level safeguards.

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MeitY warned that failure to comply could lead to the loss of intermediary liability protections under Section 79 of the IT Act and invite legal consequences under applicable laws, including the IT Act and the BNS rules.

Compliance Measures and Oversight

The ministry instructed X to conduct a comprehensive technical, procedural, and governance review of Grok, focusing on prompt processing, image handling, content generation, and safety guardrails. It also required X to enforce its terms of service and AI usage policies, including suspending or terminating accounts that violate guidelines. All content already generated or disseminated in breach of law must be removed or disabled without delay, preserving evidence.

The action follows concerns raised by Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, who highlighted the misuse of AI to sexualise women’s photos and urged urgent intervention to safeguard women’s privacy and safety online. The ministry’s move underscores increasing scrutiny over AI-driven content moderation and the responsibility of social media platforms to prevent the abuse of emerging technologies.