Malaysia has officially restored access to Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot found on the social media platform X. On Friday, the country’s communications regulator announced that people can use the tool again following a brief but intense standoff over digital safety.
The government chose to block Grok earlier this month. That decision followed a massive global backlash against the AI’s ability to create and share realistic, sexualized images of people without their permission. These “deepfakes” sparked outrage from privacy advocates and lawmakers who argued that the tool made digital harassment too easy. Malaysia took a hard stance, cutting off the service until Elon Musk’s company addressed these concerns.
To get the ban lifted, X had to implement new safety measures. These updates aim to prevent users from generating harmful or inappropriate content. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) reviewed these changes and decided that the new guardrails provided enough protection for the public to justify bringing the service back online.
This conflict shows the growing struggle between tech companies and governments. As AI advances faster than ever, countries are seeking ways to protect their citizens from new forms of online abuse. Malaysia is one of the first nations to successfully force X to change how its AI functions by using a total block as leverage.
While X hasn’t explained every detail of its new safety system, these fixes usually involve blocking specific keywords and training the AI to recognize and reject prompts that request offensive imagery. By complying with Malaysia’s rules, X avoided a permanent lockout in a major Southeast Asian market. For now, the government has ended the ban, but authorities will likely monitor the platform closely to ensure the AI behaves as promised.
