Paris prosecutors raid X offices, Musk summoned

French police raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X, and prosecutors ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in April in connection with a widening investigation into the platform.

The raid is linked to a year-long investigation into suspected misuse of algorithms and forged data by X or its executives.

However, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement that the investigation was expanded following complaints about the operation of Grok, X’s artificial intelligence chatbot.

The investigation will now investigate alleged complicity in custody, dissemination of images of a child pornographic nature, and violation of a person’s image rights through sexually explicit deepfakes, among other possible crimes.

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

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

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

The prosecutor’s office’s cybercrime unit is conducting the investigation together with the French police’s own cybercrime unit and Europol.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said it opened the investigation after being contacted by a politician who claimed that biased algorithms in X may have corrupted the functioning of the automated data processing system.

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

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