Philippines Bans X’s Grok After Indonesia and Malaysia Over Deepfake Risks

The Philippines has ordered a nationwide block of X’s AI chatbot Grok, citing misuse to create non-consensual sexualized deepfakes of women and children. The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) asked the National Telecommunications Commission to remove access under the Cybercrime Prevention Act 2012, which outlaws ‘cybersex’ and child pornography. DICT Secretary Henry Aguda and CICC Chief Undersecretary Aboy Paraiso said the ban follows presidential instruction to act quickly when public harm is evident; Grok will remain offline until it complies with the country’s internet fair use rules. The move follows near-identical actions by Indonesia (Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid) and Malaysia (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission), which blocked Grok in mid-January over repeated misuse to generate explicit deepfakes. The U.K. has also limited Grok’s image tools for most users after Ofcom raised legal-protection concerns; Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned of possible further action. X limited image generation in the U.K. to paying subscribers, a step criticized as inadequate. Key actors: Philippines DICT (Henry Aguda), CICC (Aboy Paraiso), Indonesia’s Meutya Hafid, Malaysia’s MCMC, U.K. regulator Ofcom, and X/Elon Musk. Primary issues: non-consensual deepfakes, child protection, cross-border regulatory bans. Market note: while the story concerns AI moderation and platform access rather than crypto assets directly, it underscores regulatory risk trends for tech platforms and AI services globally.