Cyber-crime police raid Musk's X office in Paris

Authorities in France raided the Paris offices of social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a cyber-crime investigation into suspected unlawful data extraction and the distribution of child sexual abuse material and deepfakes, officials said.

Prosecutors have also summoned billionaire X owner Elon Musk from the United States for questioning and are probing alleged complicity in the possession of child pornography and the spread of Holocaust-denial content.

Authorities have requested voluntary interviews take place in April with Musk and the former chief executive of X, Linda Yaccarino, according to statements from the Paris prosecutor's office, Europol, and the French police cybercrime division.

Investigators are examining alleged illegal content on the platform, as they assess potential offenses related to governance and data practices.

"The voluntary interviews with the managers should enable them to explain their position on the facts and, where applicable, the compliance measures envisaged," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Europol said the investigation spans "a range of suspected criminal offenses linked to the functioning and use of the platform, including the dissemination of illegal content and other forms of online criminal activity".

In the United Kingdom, the Information Commissioner's Office has also launched separate formal inquiries into X and Musk's AI company xAI, over how they handled personal data in developing and deploying the Grok AI chatbot, reported the BBC.

The action follows complaints that Grok produced nonconsensual explicit AI images at users' request, raising further questions about xAI's safeguards and training practices.

In response, X's Global Government Affairs account said: "The Paris Public Prosecutor's office widely publicized the raid — making clear that today's action was an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives."

It said the search was carried out "in connection with a politicized criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms and purported fraudulent data extraction". The company rejected any claims of misconduct and said the raid "endangers free speech".

"We are disappointed by this development, but we are not surprised," the statement said.

Musk later shared the post and added: "This is a political attack."

The French investigators' inquiry was begun in January 2025 amid claims of algorithmic bias, and was subsequently widened after the complaints tied to X's Grok AI.

"At this stage, the conduct of the investigation is based on a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French law, as it operates on the national territory," the prosecutors' statement said.

The Paris prosecutor's office also said it would stop using X for official updates and move communications to LinkedIn and Instagram.

jonathan@mail.chinadailyuk.com