French prosecutors seek charges against Elon Musk and X over child sexual abuse images
French prosecutors are filing charges against Elon Musk and his social platform
The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into X, including charges of complicity in the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse images and the illegal collection of personal data. It is also investigating accusations of disseminating non-consensual images or other content and denying crimes against humanity.
X and its parent company, SpaceX, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.
Inquiry arrives in less than three weeks Musk and Linda Yaccarino – X’s former CEO – was summoned to “voluntary meetings” to discuss the allegations. They did not arrive, but French officials said this would not hinder the investigation.
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.
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 images of sexual abuse 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
In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office warned the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, 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.”
