French authorities summoned billionaire Elon Musk for a “voluntary interview” and searched the local offices of his social media network X on Tuesday in an investigation into allegations of political interference and sexual deepfakes.
A French investigation began in January 2025 into allegations that X’s algorithm was used to interfere in French politics. (Reuters/Representative)The operation comes as both Britain and the European Union have launched separate investigations into the generation of sexist deepfakes of women and children by Musk’s AI chatbot Grok.
“Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026 in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Iaccarino, as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” AFP said, citing the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Iaccarino stepped down as CEO of X in July last year after two years in the role.
What are the charges against Elon Musk and X?A French investigation began in January 2025 into allegations that X’s algorithm was used to interfere in French politics. This has now expanded to include investigations into Groke’s Holocaust denial and promotion of sexual deepfakes.
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The French investigation focused on a number of suspected criminal offences, including having elements of child sexual abuse and denying crimes against humanity.
The investigation comes as part of a wider international backlash against Grok after it emerged that users could take sexual images of women and children using simple text prompts such as “put her in a bikini” or “take her clothes off”.
Paris cybercrime prosecutors called for a police inquiry in July 2025 to investigate suspected crimes – including manipulating and extracting data from automated systems “as part of a criminal ring” – after receiving two complaints in January 2025.
One of these came from the president’s lawmaker, Eric Bothorel Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, which has accused Elon Musk of “diminishing the diversity of voices and options” and “personal interference” in the management of the platform since he took over in 2022.
Musk has raised hackles over political sallies in Europe at the time, including vocal support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Separate British and EU investigationsBritain’s data regulator also launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X and xAI on Tuesday to see if the companies complied with personal data laws when it came to sexist deepfakes of Grok’s generation. This investigation is completely separate from the French investigation.
“The reporting and circulation of such content raises serious concerns under UK data protection law and presents a risk of significant potential harm to the public,” the Information Commissioner’s Office said in a statement.
The European Union also hit X in late January with Grok’s generation of sexualized deepfake images of women and minors.
XS French offices raidedAuthorities were searching X’s French premises on Tuesday morning as part of an investigation involving the European police agency Europol, according to Paris prosecutors.
Paris prosecutor Laure Bequeu said in a statement that X employees have also been summoned to appear between April 20 and 24 “to be heard as witnesses”.
X says the investigation is ‘politically motivated’X, which has denied the allegations, also called the investigation “politically motivated” in July.
D The United States issued a strong condemnation in July, saying it would defend Americans’ freedom of speech against “acts of foreign censorship.”
X’s director for France, Laurent Bouneck, pushed back against the investigation in January last year, saying X had “strict, clear and public rules” that protected the platform from hate speech and misinformation.
