On 3rd February (Tuesday), the French offices of billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), were raided by police with expertise in fighting cybercrime with support from Europol. According to the Paris prosecutor, the action was part of an inquiry into the content suggested by the social media network’s algorithm.
The probe was later expanded to include its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, Grok. The prosecutor’s office also revealed that Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino had been called to appear in April and respond to enquiries on the platform’s compliance with French law. “The voluntary interviews with the managers should enable them to explain their position on the facts and, where applicable, the compliance measures envisaged,” it mentioned.
The probe was broadened few months later in July after complaints surfaced regarding sexually explicit deepfakes and Holocaust denial content flowing on the platform. “The investigation was expanded following other reports denouncing the operation of Grok on the X platform, which led to the dissemination of Holocaust denial content and sexual deepfakes,” it declared.
According to the prosecution, they are currently looking into whether X has broken the law in several different areas and stated that it would look into a number of possible offences, involving fraudulent data extraction by an organised group, infringement of people’s image rights through sexual deepfakes alongside engaging in the possession or coordinated distribution of pornographic photos of children. Additionally, the prosecutor’s office indicated that it had quit X and would now connect via Instagram and LinkedIn.
The accusations that the prosecutor’s office is investigating as part of its probe into Musk’s social media account are listed below:
- Complicity in the possession of pornographic photos of children.
- Participation in the organised dissemination, sale, or provision of pornographic photos of minors.
- Defamation of an individual’s reputation (sexually explicit deepfakes).
- Denial of crimes against humanity (denial of the Holocaust).
- Illegal data extraction by a coordinated group from an automated data processing system.
- An organised group’s fabrication of an automated data processing system’s functionality.
- Running an illicit website by a coordinated group.
X was accused of disseminating “an enormous amount of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+ and homophobic political content, which aims to skew the democratic debate in France” in a complaint that prompted the first investigation in January 2025. According to the French newspaper Le Monde, the probe was started when liberal politician Eric Bothorel of the Renaissance party highlighted reservations about algorithmic prejudice on X and meddling in its management following its acquisition by Musk in 2022.
Two people reportedly used X’s algorithm for “purposes of foreign interference,” according to a prior statement from the prosecutor’s office. Prosecutors in Paris announced in November that they would look into Grok, X’s AI chatbot created by xAI, after it produced posts casting doubt on the operation of gas chambers in Auschwitz.
The European Commission launched an investigation into its parent business, xAI, in late January, citing concerns about the manipulated photographs. The UK regulator, Ofcom, has already started a similar inquiry. The European Union penalised X $140 million last year for failing to stop hate speech and misleading content.
In the past, X has termed the probe, which began in January, as politically motivated, an assault on free speech and even refuted allegations of algorithm tampering.
