In a statement today, MCMC said it took a serious view of public complaints involving the misuse of AI on X, particularly the manipulation of images of women and children to produce obscene, highly offensive and harmful material.

“The creation or dissemination of such harmful content constitutes an offence under the Communications and Multimedia Act, which prohibits the misuse of network services or applications to transmit content that is obscene, indecent or grossly offensive,” the statement said.

Earlier today, the French government was reported to have accused the AI chatbot Grok of creating sexualised images of people including minors on the social media platform X.

Bloomberg reported that Grok created and published images of minors in minimal clothing, in apparent violation of its own acceptable use policy, which prohibits the sexualisation of children. Some of the offending images were later taken down.

MCMC said it will also initiate investigations against X users suspected of breaching the law.

The commission added that the Online Safety Act, which has come into force, requires all online platforms and licensed service providers to take preventive measures to curb the spread of harmful content, including obscene material and child sexual abuse material.

Although X is currently not a licensed service provider, MCMC said the platform remains subject to Malaysia’s online safety standards and is responsible for preventing the dissemination of harmful content accessible in the country.

MCMC urged all platforms accessible in Malaysia to implement safeguards in line with local laws and online safety standards, particularly in relation to AI features, chatbots and image manipulation applications.

The public and affected victims should report harmful content to the relevant platforms and lodge reports with the police and MCMC through the online complaints portal.