French authorities raided the Paris offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Tuesday. The investigation targets alleged crimes, including sexualized deepfake images and illegal use of data, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The probe started in January 2025 over complaints that X’s algorithms could manipulate content. It was later expanded to include Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, after reports it produced sexualized images and posts denying the Holocaust.
Elon Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned for voluntary interviews on April 20. Other X employees will also be questioned.
“At this stage, the investigation aims to ensure that the X platform complies with French law,” the prosecutors said.
Musk called the raid a “political attack,” while Yaccarino described it as a “political vendetta against Americans.” The company denied wrongdoing and said the raid “endangers free speech.”
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European regulators are also looking into Grok and its parent company, xAI, over reports of sexualized image generation without consent. X was previously fined €120 million for breaching EU digital rules. The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office is investigating similar issues. Europol is assisting French authorities.
The raid highlights tensions between Musk’s free speech approach on X and European laws requiring moderation and transparency. Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, criticized France, saying, “Don’t be mistaken: this is not a free country.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office said it will stop using X for official announcements, moving to LinkedIn and Instagram instead.