This photograph shows a smartphone bearing the logo of Grok, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by US artificial intelligence company xAI in front of the X (formerly Twitter) logo in Brussels on January 12, 2026. © Nicolas Tucat, AFP
The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office on Tuesday launched a search of the French offices of social media platform X. The raid was connected to an ongoing investigation launched in January 2025 over alleged algorithm manipulation and illicit data extraction that has since expanded to look into allegations of complicity in spreading child sex abuse materials and sexualised deepfakes.
PARIS- The Paris prosecutor’s office said a search was under way at the French offices of Elon Musk’s social media network X on Tuesday as part of an investigation opened in January 2025.
The prosecutor’s cybercrime unit was conducting the searches, it added in a post on X, with Europol also involved and the support of the French police’s own cybercrime unit.
There was no immediate comment from X.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it launched the investigation after being contacted by a lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms in X were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system.
The probe has since expanded to investigate alleged “complicity” in spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group, and other offences, the office said in a statement Tuesday.
Paris prosecutors have summoned Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for questioning in April as part of the probe.
“Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” the prosecutor’s office said. Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.
The prosecutor’s office also said it was leaving the X social media platform and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram from now on. LinkedIn belongs to Microsoft and Instagram to Meta.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters, AFP and AP)
