Paris Prosecutors Raid X Office, Summon Elon Musk For Questioning

PARIS, February 3 (Reuters) – French police raided offices elon Musk‘s Social media network X and prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in April. Expansion of the investigation, At a time when the platform is under increasing scrutiny from authorities across Europe.

Raid and recall of France Musk The incident, which could further escalate tensions between Europe and the US over big tech and freedom of expression, is linked to a year-long investigation into suspected misuse of algorithms and forged data by X or its executives.

Meanwhile, Britain’s privacy watchdog has also launched an official campaign investigation into MuskArtificial intelligence chatbot Grok regarding its processing of personal data and its potential to produce harmful, sexualized images and video content.

In a statement The Paris prosecutor’s office said the scope of the investigation was expanded following complaints about its conduct. Grok.

The French investigation will now investigate alleged complicity in the “detention and dissemination” of images of a child pornographic nature and the violation of one’s image rights through sexually explicit deepfakes, among other potential crimes.

Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned to an April 20 hearing. Other X personnel were also called as witnesses.

There was no immediate comment from X. In July, Musk He denied the initial accusations and said French prosecutors had launched a “politically motivated criminal investigation”.

“At this stage, conducting this investigation is part of a constructive approach, aimed at ensuring the compliance of the X platform with French law as long as it operates on national territory,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Such subpoenas are mandatory, although more difficult to enforce on people who do not live in France.

Following such a hearing, authorities may decide to shelve or continue the investigation and potentially detain suspects.

Meanwhile, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office said it was investigating the xAI chatbot following reports that Grok was being used to create sexual images of individuals, including children, without their consent.

Britain’s media regulator Ofcom also said it was determining the next steps in its investigation into X. last monthbut provided few details.

Ofcom is trying to assess whether the company is doing enough to reduce the risk of sexual deepfakes spreading on the social media platform. But it said it did not investigate xAI, which operates the Grok chatbot, because it falls outside the scope of existing law.

Last week the European Union started An investigation was also launched against X and it was aimed to evaluate whether illegal content was disseminated. revolt of the people On the spread of manipulated sexualized images of Grok.

The chatbot continues to create sexualized images of people even when users explicitly warn that the subjects are not consenting. Reuters found.

xAI put some restrictions In response to last month’s backlash regarding Grok’s rendering functionality.

The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office is conducting the investigation in France, together with the French police’s own cybercrime unit and Europol. unit Previously, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in 2024 on charges including complicity in organized crime carried out on the messaging app, with his lawyer calling the accusations “absurd”.

The prosecutor’s office said it launched the investigation after being contacted by a legislator who alleged that biased algorithms in X may have impaired the functioning of the automated data processing system.

“I am glad to see that my complaint in January 2025 yielded results!” MP Eric Bothorel said of X: “In Europe, especially in France, the Rule of Law means that no one is above the law.”

The prosecution also said that he left social media platform X and will now communicate via LinkedIn and Instagram. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft MSFT.O and Instagram is owned by Meta META.O.

(Additional reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Dominique Patton; Editing by Alex Richardson and Richard Lough)