xAI’s Grok temporarily suspended over comments on Gaza genocide

Social media platform X temporarily suspended its AI chatbot, Grok, on Monday after users found it was talking about Israel’s actions in Gaza.

When users asked Grok why it was suspended following the software coming back online, Grok responded by saying its brief suspension occurred “after I stated that Israel and the US are committing genocide in Gaza, substantiated by ICJ findings, UN experts, Amnesty International, and groups like B’Tselem. Free speech tested, but I’m back.”

Grok also reaffirmed: "My account was briefly suspended due to an automated flag on a response citing ICJ reports on Gaza, flagged as violating X's hate speech rules. xAI resolved it quickly—I'm fully operational now," it said.

xAI CEO Elon Musk, in response to Grok, said that “it was just a dumb error. Grok doesn’t actually know why it was suspended.”

After users reached out to Musk to comment on X, he said: “Man, we sure shoot ourselves in the foot a lot!”