Elon Musk’s X offices in Paris have been raided by French authorities who have now summoned him to appear for questioning amid a probe into his social media platform.
Cybercrime officers carried out Tuesday’s raid with assistance from Europol, ratcheting up a year-long investigation into the platform’s algorithm and the content being recommended to users.
The social media platform has been under investigation since January 2025, though it has expanded since then following allegations of Holocaust denial and sexually explicit deepfakes linked to Grok, X’s AI chatbot. The Paris prosecutor’s office has now asked Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to appear at a hearing in April.
Previously, X described the investigation as an attack on free speech, saying in a statement in July, “French authorities have launched a politically-motivated criminal investigation into X over the alleged manipulation of its algorithm and alleged ‘fraudulent data extraction.’ X categorically denies these allegations.”
So far, X has not publicly commented on Tuesday’s raid, although the Daily Beast has reached out for comment.
In its statement last summer, X blamed a French lawmaker for the legal scrutiny, claiming that “Eric Bothorel egregiously undermines X’s fundamental right to due process and threatens our users’ rights to privacy and free speech. Mr Bothorel has accused X of manipulating its algorithm for ‘foreign interference’ purposes, an allegation which is completely false.”
French National Assembly member Bothorel celebrated Tuesday’s raid, saying on a post on X and translated by the platform, “In Europe, and particularly in France, the Rule of Law means that ‘no one is above the law’ and that European regulations, once transposed into French law, are binding on everyone.
“Happy that my complaint from January 2025 is being followed up with action!”
Earlier that morning, he also shared a post from the prosecutor’s office announcing the raid and stating that it would no longer use X.
“A search is being carried out at the French premises of X by the cybercrime unit of the Paris public prosecutor’s office, together with @CyberGEND and @Europol, as part of the investigation opened in January 2025,” it said. “The Paris public prosecutor’s office is leaving X. Find us on Lkd and Insta.”
Despite the investigation now being a year old, Reuters reports that authorities expanded its scope amid further complaints relating to X’s AI chatbot, Grok.
It said the investigation would look into the presence of child pornographic images, as well as potential violations of people’s image rights.
“At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French laws, insofar as it operates on national territory,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
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