Days after Malaysia made global headlines by announcing it would temporarily ban Grok over its ability to generate “grossly offensive and nonconsensual manipulated images”, the generative AI tool was conversing breezily with accounts registered in the country.
“Still here! That DNS block in Malaysia is pretty lightweight – easy to bypass with a VPN or DNS tweak,” Grok’s account on X said in response to a question from a user.
Grok’s ability to allow users to create sexually explicit images, including images of children, has created a global outcry over recent weeks, with regulators and politicians around the world launching investigations. Indonesia and Malaysia became the first two countries to announce blocks on the technology, with Malaysia’s regulatory body saying last Sunday it had “directed a temporary restriction” on access to Grok, effective as of 11 January 2026. Officials in the Philippines have said they too plan to ban the technology.
Blocking access to Grok is not straightforward, however. The technology not only exists across multiple platforms, including a standalone app and website, but is also integrated across X, which, along with Grok, is owned by Elon Musk’s xAI.
Over the past week, X users, and even Grok itself, have advised people on how to bypass restrictions. This includes using a VPN – many of which are available for free – or changing domain name system (DNS), the protocol on the internet that turns address names into IP addresses that load websites.
When the Guardian tried to use Grok in Indonesia, its website was working even without a VPN, though the Grok app did not work. Grok was also still responding to Indonesian accounts on X, where it functions as an integrated chatbot. X has not been subject to a ban.
Even if governments could completely restrict Grok, though, this is not a real solution, said Nana Nwachukwu, an AI governance expert and PhD researcher at Trinity College Dublin.
“Blocking Grok is like slapping a Band-Aid on a weeping wound that you haven’t cleaned,” she said. “You block Grok, and then you go around shouting you’ve done something. Meanwhile, people can use VPNs to access the same platforms.” Or, they could simply turn to one of the many other platforms that offer the same functions, including “smaller, general purpose AI systems that are largely unknown,” Nwachukwu added.
Governments should instead focus on law enforcement and investigating individuals who use such tools to break the law, she added. “Platforms are required by law to provide information to law enforcement when a crime has been committed,” Nwachukwu said. “If we see people being arrested, people being tried in courts, people being jailed for these offences, that’s a sign that this is a real crime,”
X should build accountability into its platform – and clean itself up, said…
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