French prosecutors have summoned billionaire Elon Musk to a “voluntary interview” in Paris as cybercrime authorities searched the French offices of his social media platform X on Tuesday.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed the search, which is being conducted with Europol, as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 into whether X’s algorithm was used to interfere in French politics.
Officials said Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino—who resigned in July 2025—have been summoned for interviews on April 20, 2026, in their capacities as managers of the platform at the time of the alleged events.
The probe began after complaints in January 2025, including one from Eric Bothorel, an MP from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, who accused Musk of reducing diversity of voices on X and personally intervening in its management.
By July 2025, prosecutors expanded the investigation to suspected crimes involving manipulation and extraction of data from automated systems “as part of a criminal gang.”
Authorities also cited reports that X’s AI chatbot Grok disseminated Holocaust denial content and sexual deepfakes, prompting further scrutiny.
X’s France director Laurent Buanec rejected the allegations in January 2025, insisting the platform had “strict, clear and public rules” against hate speech and disinformation.
The company later called the probe “politically motivated.”
The United States condemned the investigation in July 2025, saying it would defend Americans’ free speech against “acts of foreign censorship.”
Meanwhile, the European Union launched its own investigation in January 2026 over Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors, intensifying pressure on Musk’s platform.
This case highlights the growing clash between European regulators and U.S. tech giants over free speech, and the spread of harmful content online.
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