The Paris prosecutor’s office said a search was under way at the French offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X on Tuesday as part of an investigation opened in January 2025.
The prosecutor’s cybercrime unit was conducting the searches, it added in a post on X, with Europol also involved and the support of the French police’s own cybercrime unit.
There was no immediate comment from X.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it launched the investigation after being contacted by a lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms in X were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system.
The probe has since expanded to investigate alleged “complicity” in spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group, and other offences, the office said in a statement Tuesday.
Paris prosecutors have summoned Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for questioning in April as part of the probe.
“Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” the prosecutor’s office said. Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.
The prosecutor’s office also said it was leaving the X social media platform and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram from now on. LinkedIn belongs to Microsoft and Instagram to Meta.
“The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office widely publicised the raid – making clear that today’s action was an abusive act of law enforcement theatre designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals,” X’s Global Government Affairs team posted on the platform.
“The allegations underlying today’s raid are baseless, and X categorically denies any wrongdoing.”
Tech tycoon Elon Musk on Tuesday criticized French authorities’ raid of offices of his social media network X, amid a probe into alleged political interference and sexual deepfakes.
“This is a political attack,” the billionaire wrote on social media, adding in a separate X post that authorities in France should instead focus on targeting sex criminals.
UK data watchdog launches investigation into X and xAI
Britain’s data regulator on Tuesday launched probes into Elon Musk’s X and xAI to see whether the companies complied with personal data law when it came to AI chatbot Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfakes.
“The reported creation and circulation of such content raises serious concerns under UK data protection law and presents a risk of significant potential harm to the public,” the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said in a statement.
Watch moreYes, Musk’s Grok chatbot is ‘digitally undressing’ women and children
“Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm,” ICO executive director of regulatory risk, William Malcolm, said in the regulator’s statement.
“This is particularly the case where children are involved. Where we find obligations have not been met, we will take action to protect the public,” he added.
Britain’s media regulator Ofcom opened a separate investigation into X last month, which it said Tuesday was still ongoing and would likely take months to conclude.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP and AP)
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