French police raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X on Tuesday, and prosecutors ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in April related to awideninginvestigation into the platform, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The raid is linked to a year-long investigation into suspected abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data extraction by X or its executives.
However, in a statement, the Paris Prosecutor’s office said it was widening that investigation following complaints over the functioning of X’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.
The probe will now also investigate alleged complicity in the detention and diffusion of images of a child‑pornographic nature and the violation of a person’s image rights with sexually explicit deepfakes, among other potential crimes.
Musk, and former CEO Linda Yaccarino are summoned to a hearing on April 20. Other X staff are also summoned as witnesses.
There was no immediate comment from X. In July, Musk denied the initial accusations and said French prosecutors were launching a “politically-motivated criminal investigation”.
“At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach to ultimately ensure that the X platform complies with French laws, insofar as it operates on national territory,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The prosecutor’s cybercrime unit is conducting the investigationtogether with the French police’s own cybercrime unit and Europol.
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 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 MSFT.O and Instagram to Meta META.O.
Here are the potential crimes the Paris prosecutor says it is now investigating:
Complicity in the possession of images of minors of a pornographic nature
Complicity in the organised distribution, offering, or making available of images of minors of a pornographic nature
Defamation of a person’s image (deepfakes of sexual nature)
Denial of crimes against humanity (Holocaust denial)
Fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system by an organised group
Falsification of the operation of an automated data processing system by an organised group
Operating an illegal online platform by an organised group.
(With Inputs From Reuters)
