French authorities have searched the offices of social media platform X in France and summoned billionaire Elon Musk for questioning over allegations that the platform was used to interfere in French politics.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that Musk has been invited for a “voluntary interview” scheduled for April 20, 2026, in Paris. Former X CEO Linda Yaccarino was also summoned. Yaccarino resigned from her role in July last year after two years at the company.
The raid and summons are part of an investigation launched in January 2025 to examine whether X’s algorithm was manipulated to influence political discussions and opinions in France. The operation involves French cybercrime police and Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency.
According to prosecutors, the investigation began after two complaints were filed in January 2025. One of them came from Eric Bothorel, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron’s party, who accused X of limiting the diversity of views on the platform and criticised Musk’s direct involvement in how the platform is run.
The probe was later expanded after more reports accused X’s AI chatbot, Grok, of spreading Holocaust denial content and sexually explicit deepfake images.
French prosecutors said they are investigating possible crimes, including the illegal manipulation and extraction of data from automated systems as part of organised activity.
In response, Laurent Buanec, X’s director in France, rejected the allegations, saying the platform has clear rules to fight hate speech and disinformation.
The United States government criticised the investigation in July, describing it as an attack on free speech and warning against what it called foreign censorship of American companies.
X has also denied the accusations, calling the investigation politically motivated.
Separately, the European Union opened its own investigation in late January into Grok’s alleged creation of sexualised deepfake images involving women and minors. This comes despite repeated warnings from the United States, which says strict tech regulations unfairly target American companies and limit free expression.
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