French prosecutors raided the Paris offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a sweeping cybercrime investigation, prompting the billionaire to denounce what he called a political attack. The search was conducted by the Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit in partnership with French police's national cyber unit and Europol, which deployed an analyst to provide on-the-ground support during the operation.
The investigation centers on multiple serious allegations including complicity in the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse images, the creation and spread of sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity, and manipulation of automated data processing systems as part of organized group activity. Prosecutors have summoned both Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino to appear for voluntary interviews on April 20 in Paris, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the platform at the time of the alleged offenses.
The case originated in January 2025 when liberal lawmaker Eric Bothorel alleged that biased algorithms on X were likely to have distorted the functioning of automated data processing systems. A separate complaint from a civil service cybersecurity director claimed algorithm changes had amplified what he described as nasty political content. The probe was subsequently expanded following disturbing reports about Grok, X's AI chatbot built by Musk's xAI company, which allegedly generated French-language posts questioning gas chamber use at Auschwitz and permitted the creation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material of women and children.
X's government affairs account issued a scathing response, dismissing the investigation as politicized and calling the allegations baseless. The platform stated it was disappointed by the development but not surprised, accusing the Paris prosecutor's office of widely publicizing the search to demonstrate that the action was an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals. Sharing this statement, Musk wrote on his personal account that this is a political attack.
The confrontation reflects a broader clash between Musk and European authorities over content moderation and platform responsibility. Last year, the European Union fined X the equivalent of 140 million dollars for failing to combat hate speech and misinformation. Last week, the European Commission launched a separate probe into Grok following criticism of its ability to produce sexually explicit images. In a pointed institutional response, the Paris prosecutor's office announced it was leaving the X platform entirely, directing users to find them on LinkedIn and Instagram instead. Telegram founder Pavel Durov commented that France is the only country in the world criminally prosecuting all social networks that offer people some degree of freedom, calling into question whether it remains a free country.
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