The Philippines will lift its ban on the AI chatbot Grok following government discussions with Elon Musk-led developer xAI regarding sexually explicit content.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said Wednesday that xAI reached out after Grok was initially banned on January 16. Grok, built into X (formerly Twitter), was flagged for generating sexually explicit content and “nonconsensual illicit deepfakes.”
xAI pledged to modify Grok to remove content and image manipulation features, aiming to prevent the creation of deepfake pornographic content, particularly child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
“The Grok AI app has reached out to us and stated that its platform will no longer use any content manipulation. Even after lifting the ban, the CICC will still closely monitor the app to ensure they comply with our rules and regulations,” said CICC Undersecretary Renato Paraiso.
The CICC and xAI will hold further discussions on resuming Grok services in the Philippines. Grok was blocked within 24 hours of the government announcement, with the National Telecommunications Commission directing all ISPs to immediately block the platform.
The Philippines is the third country to ban Grok after Malaysia and Indonesia, while other countries like Australia and the United Kingdom are investigating the app. xAI has also implemented user restrictions to limit image manipulation and editing.
