What began as a harmless AI trend on social media has now turned into a serious policy and safety issue in India. The so-called bikini trend on X has drawn widespread attention in the past few days. The trend started when the users started tagging the platform’s AI bot, Grok, with requests to alter photos and place people in bikinis. While some users willingly participated, the trend quickly crossed ethical lines when images of women were shared without consent and turned into obscene or sexualised visuals. The issue gained more popularity as Elon Musk, CEO of X, joined the trend by asking the AI bot to generate his image in a bikini. The trend has received backlash from politicians, activists, and users across the globe and has prompted a direct intervention from the Indian government.
The bikini trend on X can be seen as a successor to these earlier trends. However, while the previous trends were largely praised for their creativity and positive appeal, the bikini trend marked a drastic shift, as it was widely perceived as inappropriate and received negatively by many users.
While many users joined in the trend voluntarily, the issue began when users shared photos of women, including journalists and public figures, without permission and asked the AI to make the images revealing. Furthermore, many women also faced harassment in comment sections, where strangers repeatedly tagged Grok under their photos with such prompts.
Shiv Sena UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi publicly flagged the issue, calling it a violation of women’s dignity and privacy. Other than that, she also urged the government to act quickly and questioned the lack of laws that allow such content to be generated so easily.
Soon after that, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a formal notice to X. In the formal notice, the ministry accused the platform of failing to meet its legal duty under Indian law to prevent the hosting and spread of obscene and sexually explicit content. Furthermore, it warned the company that if they continue the non-compliance, then they could result in the loss of legal protection granted to online intermediaries.
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The government asked X to immediately review Grok’s services, strengthen content controls, and remove all violating content without any delay. Moreover, the government has put a clock on the companies’ actions, as they have been asked for a report on actions taken on the violation with a time limit of seventy-two hours.
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Following the intervention, X has reportedly limited the visibility of the trend for most Indian users. Grok has also begun refusing bikini-related prompts. While this has brought some relief, many women say the episode highlights a deeper issue. Without strong guardrails and accountability, AI-driven trends can quickly turn into tools of harassment rather than creativity.