French prosecutors announced Friday that they have opened a police investigation into billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s social media platform X over allegations of data tampering and fraud, according to a report published by The Associated Press.
Investigation Opens Amid Allegations of Fraud and Foreign Interference
According to the report, the Paris prosecutor’s office said a branch of the French gendarmerie is leading the inquiry.
The probe is focussed on two suspected offenses: “organised tampering with the functioning of an automated data processing system” and “organised fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system,” according to an official statement cited by the US-based news agency. However, no specific details about the alleged wrongdoing were available at the time of writing this report.
Complaints from a Lawmaker and Senior Official Triggered Inquiry
The investigation, the report said, was sparked by complaints submitted in January to France’s cybercrimes unit by two individuals — a member of parliament and a senior official in a French government institution. Their identities and the institution remain undisclosed.
According to prosecutors, the complainants claimed the suspected misuse of X’s algorithm was connected to “purposes of foreign interference,” as reported by The Associated Press.
However, the exact nature of the interference or how the algorithm was allegedly exploited wasn’t revealed.
Prosecutors Act After Verifications and New Information
The decision to open an investigation came this week after verifications and additional information received from French researchers and several public institutions, the AP quoted the Paris prosecutor’s office as saying.
The probe, the report said, targets both the platform and unnamed individuals connected to X, although officials have not specified who these people might be or their roles within the company.
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