French prosecutors summon Elon Musk over allegations of child abuse images and deepfakes on X
PARIS (AP) — Elon Musk Investigators summoned to Paris on Monday are investigating allegations of abuse related to social media platform X, including the dissemination of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that Linda Yaccarino, the world’s richest man and former CEO of X, was summoned for “voluntary interviews” and that other employees of the platform are planned to be heard as witnesses throughout this week.
It is not yet clear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for X did not respond to questions from The Associated Press, and Yaccarino’s current company, eMed, did not respond to a request sent to its press email.
French prosecutors also suspect that discussions about deepfakes of the platform’s artificial intelligence system Grok were fabricated to increase the value of Musk-owned companies ahead of a major market listing, and have warned US authorities. Musk welcomed a report that US justice officials refused to help French investigators, writing on X: “This needs to stop.”
Reason for calling Musk
Musk was later called a search was made at X’s facilities in France in February, as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino were invited as directors of X at the time of the investigated events. Yaccarino was the CEO From May 2023 to July 2025.
“The purpose of these voluntary interviews with managers is to enable them to present their position on the facts and the compliance measures they plan to implement where appropriate,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach with the ultimate goal of ensuring that platform X complies with French law as long as it operates on national territory.”
Asked whether Musk would risk sanctions if he missed the hearing, the Paris prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
What is being investigated
French authorities launched the investigation following reports from a French legislator alleging that biased algorithms in X had likely corrupted the functioning of the automated data processing system. Expanded after the artificial intelligence system, GrokHe created posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.
It is investigating allegations of “complicity” in the possession and dissemination of pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges.
Grok spark created by xAI and available through X global anger This year, after X spread a flood of sexualized, non-consensual deepfake images in response to demands from its users.
Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers Auschwitz-Birkenau The death camps were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than mass murder, language long associated with Holocaust denial.
In later posts on
French prosecutors warn US officials
In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office warned the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the US federal agency responsible for regulating and supervising financial markets – arguing that “the controversy surrounding obscene deepfakes produced by Grok may have been deliberately planned to artificially increase the value of companies X and xAI and could potentially constitute criminal offences.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office said this could be done “before the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity created by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X is clearly losing momentum.”
Ministry of Justice did not heed France’s call
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French law enforcement officials that it would not facilitate efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs accused the French in a two-page letter last week of improperly using the justice system to interfere with an American business, the newspaper reported.
The letter also stated that France’s requests for assistance from the United States “constitute an effort to implicate the United States in a politically charged criminal case aimed at unfairly regulating the commercial activities of a social media platform through prosecution.”
French judicial authorities did not respond to requests for comment.
Lawsuit against Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), meanwhile, said it had filed a new complaint against X with the Paris prosecutor’s office’s cybercrime unit, targeting “the platform’s policies that allowed disinformation to flourish.”
“Disinformation campaigns are flooding X, some of which have been viewed several hundred thousand times. Although staff at Elon Musk’s platform are well aware of the situation, this has not stopped them from responding to RSF’s repeated warnings with automated refusals to remove the content in question,” RSF said. he said. “This is a deliberate policy put in place by X and is incompatible with the public’s right to reliable information.”
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Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this story.
