The Philippines will lift its short-lived ban on Elon Musk’s Grok after xAI agreed to remove image-manipulation and pornographic features for the local market, including safeguards against child sexual abuse material. A formal meeting will set the timeline for the chatbot’s reinstatement. The decision follows X’s geoblocking measures and an inquiry by the California Attorney General, with other countries also launching probes.
Philippines Lifts Short-Lived Ban on Elon Musk’s Grok After xAI Agrees to Remove Deepfake and Pornographic Features
The Philippines says it will end its ban on Elon Musk's Grok, less than a week after blocking the AI chatbot (Nicolas TUCAT)(Nicolas TUCAT/AFP/AFP)
The Philippines announced it will lift a brief ban on Elon Musk's AI chatbot Grok after developer xAI agreed to modify the tool for the local market and remove features that enabled sexualised deepfakes and pornographic output, the country's Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said.
What Changed
According to the CICC, xAI has pledged to stop using content manipulation features that could create deepfakes and to exclude all pornographic content — with an explicit emphasis on preventing child sexual abuse material (CSAM). A formal meeting between Philippine officials and xAI will establish a timeline for reinstating the chatbot.
Context
The archipelago nation had blocked Grok on January 15, making it the third country in Southeast Asia to do so after Indonesia and Malaysia amid international concerns about sexually explicit outputs. X — the social media platform associated with Musk — said it would geoblock the ability for Grok and X users to generate images of people in "bikinis, underwear, and similar attire" in jurisdictions where such content is illegal.
"The Grok AI app has reached out to us and stated that its platform will no longer use any content manipulation," CICC undersecretary Renato Paraiso said in the agency's statement.
When the ban was initially announced, Philippine Telecommunications Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said the government needed to "clean the internet now, because much toxic content is appearing, especially with the advent of AI." The move to geoblock followed an inquiry launched by the California Attorney General into xAI over sexually explicit material; several other countries have opened related probes.
Next Steps
Officials said a scheduled meeting with xAI will determine specific modifications and a timeline for Grok's return to the Philippine market. The CICC emphasized that reinstatement will depend on implementation of the promised safeguards and the removal of image-manipulation capabilities that enabled deepfake creation.
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