Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris on Monday, the place investigators are wanting into allegations of misconduct associated to the social media platform X, together with the unfold of kid sexual abuse materials and deepfake content.
The world’s richest man and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — have been summoned for “voluntary interviews,” whereas different workers of the platform are scheduled to be heard as witnesses all through this week, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace stated.
It stays unclear whether or not Musk and Yaccarino will journey to Paris. A spokesperson for X didn’t reply to questions from The Related Press and Yaccarino’s present firm, eMed, didn’t reply a request despatched to the press e-mail.
French prosecutors additionally suspect that controversy round the platform’s AI system Grok’s deepfakes was concocted to spice up the worth of Musk-owned firms forward of a key market itemizing, and alerted U.S. authorities. Musk welcomed a report that U.S. justice officers refused to assist French investigators, posting on X, “This must cease.”
The explanation for summoning Musk
Musk was summoned after a search took place in February on the French premises of X as a part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s workplace. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited of their capacities as managers of X on the time of the occasions investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from Could 2023 till July 2025.
“These voluntary interviews with the executives are meant to permit them to current their place relating to the details and, the place acceptable, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors stated. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is a part of a constructive strategy, with the final word goal of making certain that platform X complies with French legislation, insofar because it operates inside the nationwide territory.”
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace stated Musk and Yaccarino’s potential no-show on Monday “is just not an impediment for investigations to proceed.”
What’s being investigated
French authorities opened their investigation after reviews from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X doubtless distorted the functioning of an automatic knowledge processing system. It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a criminal offense in France, and unfold sexually express deepfakes.
It’s wanting into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic pictures of minors, sexually express deepfakes, denial of crimes towards humanity and manipulation of an automatic knowledge processing system as a part of an organized group, amongst different fees.
Grok, which was constructed by xAI and is on the market by means of X, sparked world outrage this 12 months after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake pictures in response to requests from X customers.
Grok additionally wrote in a broadly shared put up in French that gasoline chambers on the Auschwitz-Birkenau demise camp had been designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B towards typhus” somewhat than for mass homicide — language lengthy related to Holocaust denial.
In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was flawed, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historic proof that Zyklon B was used to kill greater than 1 million individuals in Auschwitz gasoline chambers.
French prosecutors alert U.S. authorities
In March, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace alerted the U.S. Division of Justice and the Securities and Change Fee (SEC) — the U.S. federal company chargeable for regulating and overseeing monetary markets — suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually express deepfakes generated by Grok could have been intentionally orchestrated to artificially enhance the worth of the businesses X and xAI — probably constituting prison offenses,” prosecutors stated.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace stated this might have been accomplished “forward of the deliberate June 2026 inventory market itemizing of the brand new entity fashioned by the merger of Area X and xAI, at a time when firm X was clearly shedding momentum.”
Justice Division brushes off French name
In accordance with the Wall Road Journal, the Justice Division informed French legislation enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to analyze Musk’s X.
The newspaper reported that the Justice Division’s Workplace of Worldwide Affairs, in a two-page letter final week, accused the French of inappropriately utilizing its justice system to intrude with an American enterprise.
The letter additionally stated France’s requests for U.S. help “represent an effort to entangle the US in a politically charged prison continuing geared toward wrongfully regulating by means of prosecution the enterprise actions of a social media platform.”
French judicial authorities didn’t reply to requests for feedback.
Investigations launched into a number of web platforms
The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s workplace has launched lately a sequence of investigations specializing in web platforms’ suspected unlawful actions.
French-language web site Coco, which was cited within the landmark trial that turned Gisèle Pelicot into a world icon towards sexual violence, closed in 2024 as its supervisor is accused of complicity in spreading baby pornography and trafficking of youngsters for sexual functions, amongst different issues.
Pavel Durov, the founding father of the Telegram messaging app, was handed preliminary fees and positioned below judicial supervision for allegedly permitting prison exercise on the platform, together with baby sexual abuse materials and drug trafficking.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace opened final 12 months an investigation into TikTok over allegations that the platform permits content material selling suicide and that its algorithms could encourage susceptible younger individuals to take their very own lives.
In the meantime, Reporters With out Borders (RSF) stated it has lodged a brand new grievance towards X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s workplace focusing on “the platform’s insurance policies that permit disinformation to flourish.”
Related Press reporter Kelvin Chan contributed to this story.
—Samuel Petrequin, Related Press
