PARIS – French police have raided the Paris offices of X as the city’s prosecutors ordered Elon Musk to appear in April in a widening criminal investigation into the platform’s operations and its artificial‑intelligence chatbot, Grok.
Prosecutors said the raid stems from a year‑long probe into suspected abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data extraction by X or its executives. The case has been expanded to examine alleged complicity in the detention and distribution of images of children of a pornographic nature and violations of image rights tied to sexually explicit deepfakes.
The inquiry places X under intensified legal and regulatory scrutiny across Europe, with investigators in France coordinating with cybercrime specialists and parallel actions underway in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
French prosecutors expand scope to AI‑generated sexual imagery
Prosecutors said the investigation now encompasses potential crimes linked to Grok, X’s AI chatbot. According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, investigators are working with the French police cybercrime unit and Europol.
The probe is being conducted under French criminal statutes covering child sexual abuse material, privacy and image rights, and the integrity of automated data‑processing systems, a framework that has increasingly been applied to large social platforms and generative AI tools.
Allegations under examination, as described by the prosecutor’s office:
– Suspected abuse of algorithms
– Fraudulent data extraction
– Alleged complicity in the detention and diffusion of images of children of a pornographic nature
– Violation of a person’s image rights via sexually explicit deepfakes
– Other potential offenses identified by cybercrime authorities
“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.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it launched the investigation after being contacted by a politician who alleged that biased algorithms on X were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system. The office also said it is leaving the X social platform and will communicate via LinkedIn and Instagram, underscoring the breakdown in trust between France’s justice authorities and the Musk‑owned company.
How the case fits into Europe’s new tech‑governance regime
Legal experts say the Paris inquiry will be closely watched as an early test of how national prosecutors apply long‑standing criminal law alongside newer European digital‑platform rules. The European Commission has already opened a separate proceeding to assess whether X is complying with the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act, which requires large platforms to limit illegal content and mitigate systemic risks, including the spread of manipulated or non‑consensual sexual imagery.
French investigators are coordinating with Europol and regulators in other capitals, making the X case a bellwether for how aggressively European authorities will move against global platforms whose AI systems are alleged to facilitate abuse rather than prevent it.
Parallel action in the UK and EU
On the same day as the Paris raid, Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office said it was investigating the xAI chatbot following reports that Grok had been used to generate non‑consensual sexual imagery of individuals, including children.
Britain’s media regulator Ofcom said separately it was setting out the next steps in its investigation into X, seeking to assess whether the company has done enough to mitigate the risk of sexual deepfakes spreading on its social media platform. Ofcom said it was not investigating xAI, which operates the Grok chatbot, as it falls beyond the scope of current law.
The European Union also launched an investigation into X to assess whether the platform disseminated illegal content amid public concern over manipulated sexualised images. Brussels has indicated that findings in national investigations, including France’s criminal probe, could feed into its own enforcement decisions.
Grok is facing global scrutiny over reports it has been used to generate non-consensual sexual imagery of individuals. (Reuters: Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
Company responses and prior statements
There was no immediate comment from X. Elon Musk has previously rejected the French allegations; in July he said prosecutors were launching a “politically‑motivated criminal investigation.” He has repeatedly argued that X is being unfairly targeted for political speech hosted on the platform.
xAI has put some restrictions on Grok’s image generation function in response to backlash, after users demonstrated that the system would create explicit, hyper‑realistic images of women and children. Regulators in France, the UK and at EU level are now seeking to determine whether those measures were reactive and piecemeal, or whether X and xAI have put in place durable safeguards to prevent future abuse.
Who is being summoned and when
Prosecutors said Musk and former chief executive Linda Yaccarino are summoned for a hearing on April 20. Other X staff have been called as witnesses. X, which was bought by Musk in 2022, is facing multiple probes in Europe into content moderation, user safety and alleged breaches of new digital‑platform rules.
Key procedural notes:
– Lead agencies: Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit with the French police cybercrime unit and Europol
– Inquiry origins: complaints relayed by a politician about biased algorithms possibly distorting an automated data processing system
– Communication change: the prosecutor’s office said it will no longer use X and will provide updates via LinkedIn and Instagram
Musk and Yaccarino are summoned for a hearing on April 20, a date that will test how one of the world’s most prominent tech executives responds when national prosecutors move from regulatory pressure to potential criminal liability over the design and deployment of his platforms’ AI systems.
