The Paris offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, have been raided by the city’s cyber-crime unit, the French prosecutor’s office confirmed, amid an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in possession of child pornography.
The probe began in January 2025, initially focusing on content recommended by X’s algorithm, before being expanded to include the company’s AI chatbot, Grok.
A statement from the prosecutor’s office said, “Both Musk and former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino have been summoned to appear at hearings in April.”
X has yet to comment but previously described the investigation as “politically-motivated” and an attack on free speech. The company also denied manipulating its algorithm.
Prosecutors are examining whether X may have committed multiple offences, including “complicity in possession or organised distribution of images of children of a pornographic nature, infringement of people’s image rights with sexual deepfakes and fraudulent data extraction by an organised group.”
Separately, UK authorities are investigating sexual deepfakes generated by Musk’s AI tool Grok, often using real images of women without consent. Ofcom described the matter as “a matter of urgency,” while the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it was launching its own probe into the processing of personal data in relation to Grok.
William Malcom, executive director for regulatory risk & innovation at the ICO, said, “The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people’s personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this.”
The European Commission also announced an investigation into X’s parent company, xAI, over concerns about the images and is coordinating with French authorities on the Paris office raid.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov criticised the action, posting on X that France is “the only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom,” adding, “Don’t be mistaken: this is not a free country.”
Durov was arrested and detained in France in August 2024 over alleged moderation failures on Telegram but was allowed to leave after the platform made operational changes, including sharing some user data with authorities.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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