Philippines orders takedown of AI chatbot Grok, following Indonesia and Malaysia

The Philippine government has ordered the takedown of artificial intelligence chatbot Grok, becoming the latest in Southeast Asia to act after Indonesia and Malaysia, citing failures in content regulation and the spread of nonconsensual illicit deepfakes involving women and minors.

In a statement on Friday, the department of information and communications technology (DICT) said secretary Henry Aguda, together with cybercrime investigation and coordinating centre (CICC) chief undersecretary Aboy Paraiso, formally requested the national telecommunications commission (NTC) to block and take down access to Grok within 24 hours.

The move is anchored on Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which the DICT said is intended to protect the public from exploitation arising from Grok’s ability to “manipulate content, produce sexually explicit materials, and generate deepfakes of real individuals without their consent.”

Don't miss: HK privacy watchdog raises alarm over Grok's potential for harmful content

Aguda said the decision was made swiftly following instructions from President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., particularly in cases where public harm is involved. He added that Grok will remain inaccessible in the Philippines until it is able to comply with the country’s internet fair use policy.

Paraiso, meanwhile, underscored the risks posed by Grok’s content-generation capabilities, particularly its potential to produce pornographic material, including child sexual abuse content, which he said has led to the platform being banned in several other jurisdictions.

Indonesia became the first Southeast Asian country to block access to xAI’s Grok, citing concerns over the creation and spread of non-consensual sexual deepfake content. The ban, enforced by the ministry of communication and digital affairs, reflects growing regulatory scrutiny over generative AI safeguards and platform accountability.

Minister Meutya Hafid said the move was aimed at protecting women, children and the public, describing nonconsensual sexual deepfakes as “a serious violation of human rights, dignity and the safety of citizens in the digital space.”

Malaysia followed the move, with the Malaysian communications and multimedia commission citing the “repeated misuse” of Grok to generate obscene, sexually explicit and non-consensual manipulated images. The regulator said it had issued notices to X Corp. and xAI, demanding stronger safeguards to prevent further abuse of the AI chatbot.

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