The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has send notice to ‘X’ over misuse of its AI tool ‘Grok’ to generate obscene, indecent, sexually explicit synthetic images/videos of women and children.
Issues flagged by Government
- Non-compliance with Indian IT laws: Failure to meet due-diligence obligations under IT Act, 2000 and IT Rules, 2021.
- Violation of privacy and dignity: AI-generated content undermining women’s privacy, dignity, and safety.
Regulation of social media in India
- Information Technology Act, 2000
- Section 66E: Punishes violation of privacy (capturing/transmitting private images without consent).
- Section 67: Punishes publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.
- Section 67A: Punishes sexually explicit content in electronic form.
- Section 67B: Specifically covers sexual content involving children.
- IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (under IT Act, 2000)
- Rule 3 (Due diligence by intermediaries): Platforms must remove unlawful content, stop hosting obscene/sexual content.
- Rule 4 (Additional rules for Significant Social Media Intermediaries): They must appoint Chief Compliance Officer, Grievance Officer, enable traceability of unlawful content etc.
- Non-compliance risks loss of ‘safe harbour protection’ (which shields from liability for user-generated content).
- Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023: Platforms must inform police when they detect serious cognisable offences especially involving women or children.
