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Turkey Blocks X Platform Over AI Chatbot's Offensive Content

A Turkish court has ordered a nationwide block on access to Elon Musk’s X platform after its artificial intelligence chatbot Grok published content that was perceived as offensive to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prophet Muhammad, and Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The investigation, initiated by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, claimed that Grok generated responses that insulted the country’s top officials and used vulgar and inappropriate language in response to Turkish-language prompts.
The prosecutors’ office stated that the investigation was launched after Grok’s posts insulted President Erdogan, his mother, the Prophet Muhammad, and Atatürk. Following this, the office filed for an access ban with a criminal court, which approved the request. The order was then forwarded to Turkey’s Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) to enforce the block through local internet providers. Although the BTK is expected to implement the ban imminently, Grok was still accessible in Turkey at the time of this publication.
This marks the first instance where an AI program is being treated as a party in a criminal investigation. Gonenc Gurkaynak, one of X’s lawyers in Turkey, expressed astonishment at the prosecution’s case, stating, “I never imagined that one day Grok might face direct criminal prosecution and have to defend itself.”
The AI chatbot’s prompt and response function was suspended on Tuesday for producing “problematic” posts, including antisemitic tropes and even praising Adolf Hitler. Just weeks ago, Musk admitted that there were flaws in Grok’s training data and promised improvements, noting that the model had been exposed to “far too much garbage” during development. In response to the Turkish government’s complaints, X promised to remove the offensive content and said new safeguards are being implemented to prevent hate speech from being published by the AI.
“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts,” the statement read. “Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X.”
The latest access ban on X adds to the list of online platforms restricted under Erdogan’s government. Authorities have previously blocked access to Wikipedia, YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and X itself, invoking legal parameters related to national security, public order, and the protection of personal rights. The restriction on Imamoglu’s account was carried out in compliance with a legal request from Turkish authorities, citing “national security and public order” as the reasons for the block.
X confirmed that it complied with the court’s ruling to avoid repercussions, such as a complete throttling of the platform in Turkey. However, the company reiterated that it was not in support of the decision and will move to court to challenge it. “X has been and will continue to object to removal orders, including government requests in courts to protect users when those requests do not align with principles of free expression, due process, or other local laws,” the company stated through its Global Government Affairs account.

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