Desk Correspondent , Washington D.C - In a significant move to avert a potential legal showdown with the Indian government, X (formerly Twitter) has blocked a vast amount of content and permanently deleted over 600 accounts. The crackdown follows a stern directive from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) regarding the viral spread of obscene and non-consensual AI-generated images. The controversy centered around Grok, X's proprietary AI chatbot, which was reportedly being used by malicious actors to generate highly realistic and derogatory deepfakes of prominent Indian politicians, film stars, and public figures.

The Indian government had reportedly warned the Elon Musk-led platform that failure to curb the "systemic misuse" of its AI tools would result in the loss of its 'safe harbor' protection—the legal immunity that shields social media intermediaries from liability for user-posted content. According to sources within the ministry, the deleted accounts were identified as "repeat offenders" who were actively prompts-engineering Grok to bypass safety filters and sharing the resulting explicit content across various hashtags.

An X spokesperson stated that the platform has "zero tolerance" for the distribution of non-consensual sexual imagery (NCSI) and has deployed enhanced automated filters to prevent such AI prompts in the future. However, digital rights activists and government officials remain skeptical, questioning whether Grok's internal guardrails are robust enough for the Indian market. This incident marks the latest flashpoint in the ongoing tension between Musk’s "free speech absolutism" and India's strict IT rules. As the government prepares new regulations specifically targeting "AI-induced harms," the mass suspension of accounts signals X’s growing realization that compliance is the only way to remain operational in one of its largest user bases.