New Delhi, Jan. 7 -- The ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) has extended X's deadline by 48 hours after the platform cited employee holidays, a senior official told HT on Tuesday. X now has until 5pm on January 7 to respond to the ministry's demand for an action plan on Grok AI misuse. India's move forms part of a widening international crackdown. The European Union has launched urgent investigations under the Digital Services Act, calling Grok's child-sexualised content "illegal" and "appalling". The UK's Ofcom warned of compliance investigations after "urgent contact" with X and xAI. France expanded a criminal probe to include child pornography generation. Malaysia's communications commission is investigating "grossly offensive" violations and summoning X representatives. Meity wrote to X on January 2, flagging what it called serious failures in preventing obscene and sexually explicit content generated using Grok. The ministry warned that continued non-compliance could strip X of legal protection under Indian law. X requested the extension, citing two intervening holidays - for Christmas and New Year's Day - as the reason it needed additional time. In the two days leading up to the January 2 letter, Meity had held discussions with X's compliance teams over Grok's responses to political and religious issues, HT reported on January 3. Those discussions were unrelated to obscene or pornographic content, which is why MeitY's letter took X by surprise, a person aware of the matter said. The letter, addressed to X's chief compliance officer Vinay Prakash, said: "It has especially been observed that the service namely 'Grok AI'... is being misused by users to create fake accounts to host, generate, publish or share obscene images or videos of women in a derogatory or vulgar manner in order to indecently denigrate them." The abuse is not limited to fake accounts, the ministry noted. It also targets women who upload their own photos or videos, which are then manipulated through AI prompts and synthetic outputs. Meity has directed X to submit a detailed action taken report spelling out technical measures taken for Grok, the role played by the chief compliance officer, action against offending users and content, and systems put in place to meet mandatory crime reporting requirements. The ministry warned that failure to comply could lead to loss of Section 79 immunity and "strict legal consequences" against the platform,...