KUALA LUMPUR – French authorities have summoned billionaire Elon Musk to a “voluntary interview” as part of a growing investigation into his social media platform X.
|The Paris public prosecutor’s office confirmed that cybercrime officers raided the platform’s French offices on Tuesday, a move that is tied to an ongoing probe into the platform’s operations, the AFP reported.
The investigation, which began in January 2025, involves Europol and is focused on whether X’s algorithm was used to interfere in French politics.
The French authorities have sent summonses to Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for a voluntary interview scheduled for April 20, 2026. The summonses were issued in their roles as the platform’s managers at the time the alleged events took place. Yaccarino resigned from her post in July 2024 after leading the company for two years.
The Paris cybercrime unit initiated a police investigation in July 2025 following complaints, including one from Eric Bothorel, a Member of Parliament from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party. Bothorel alleged that there had been a “reduced diversity of voices and options” on X since Musk’s acquisition of the platform in 2022.
The investigation expanded to examine allegations involving the platform’s AI chatbot Grok, which has been accused of disseminating Holocaust denials and creating explicit deepfake images.
X has consistently denied any wrongdoing. In response to the investigation, Laurent Buanec, X’s director in France, stated in January 2025 that the platform operates under “strict, clear, and public rules” designed to protect users from hate speech and disinformation. The platform also characterised the investigation as “politically motivated.”
The scope of the investigation has since broadened. French prosecutors are now investigating whether X or its executives were complicit in the creation and distribution of child pornography and explicit deepfakes using Grok’s technology.
The French probe comes amid a wider European investigation into X’s use of AI technology. In January 2025, the European Union initiated its own inquiry into Grok’s involvement in generating sexualised deepfake images of women and minors.
Despite this, the United States has strongly condemned the investigations, arguing they represent an act of foreign censorship against American companies.
The French cybercrime unit, in collaboration with Europol and French police, continues to oversee the investigation. The Paris prosecutor’s office has indicated that the focus of the inquiry remains on ensuring that X complies with French laws while operating within the country. – February 3, 2026