Elon Musk gets destroyed as two major countries block X, and the ones ramping up to do the same are making his nightmare far worse

X is facing a massive international crisis right now, as both the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia have officially suspended access to the service, as per The Register. This is a terrible situation for X, especially given the reason for the bans: the platform’s failure to adequately address the rampant creation of non-consensual sexual imagery.

Indonesia’s minister of communications and digital affairs, Meutya Hafid, said, “The government views the practice of non-consensual sexual deepfakes as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and the security of citizens in the digital space.” Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission had previously demanded that X implement safeguards to prevent illegal material. Since X’s response didn’t satisfy those demands, Malaysia will keep X blocked until appropriate measures are put in place.

This is a serious problem for Elon Musk’s company because X can ill afford to alienate massive markets. Indonesia is the world’s fourth-most-populous nation. India, the world’s most populous country, has also reportedly warned X that it must do more to prevent sexual deepfakes, meaning three massive potential user bases are currently pushing back hard on the platform’s content policies.

It seems the debate pits freedom of speech against the critical need for social responsibility, and right now, X is losing that fight in some of the world’s most important digital spaces

The situation is getting much worse because now the UK, Canada, and Australia are jumping into the conversation about potential bans, according to Albawaba. Their concern stems specifically from users abusing Grok, X’s built-in AI companion, to generate truly abhorrent explicit deepfake images of women and, horrifyingly, children. Some users were reportedly asking Grok to generate images of famous actresses and underage children in explicit clothing without consent, violating several laws in the process.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was crystal clear about his feelings on the matter. He told reporters in Canberra, “The fact that this tool was used so that people were using its image creation function through Grok is, I think, just completely abhorrent.” He added that this is “once again, is an example of social media not showing social responsibility.” Reports indicate that London’s Downing Street is in talks with Australia and Canada to ban the platform following this troubling AI trend.

Naturally, Elon Musk is arguing that the real reason governments are blocking X is that they want to suppress free speech. He accused the UK’s Labour Party of “censorship” over the country’s possible ban due to the explicit AI images, and he has been flooding his official account with reposts mocking the ban proposals. Notably, Musk offered free broadband access via Starlink to Venezuela “in support of the people” of the nation.

Meanwhile, internet users worldwide have had mixed reactions to the possible bans. Many are siding with Musk, accusing the countries of censorship and a breach of free speech. One user on X wrote that they don’t think the governments “understand how badly this will end up for them.” Another added, “Crazy move. A country shouldn’t be able to ban a social network. People should be free to choose how they get informed.”

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