The Paris offices of Elon Musk’s X were raided Tuesday morning as part of the investigation launched last year by the cybercrime division of the Paris public prosecutor’s office.
Musk and Linda Yaccarino have been summoned by French authorities for a court appearance on April 20 as part of the investigation, while employees of platform X are also summoned for the following week in April to be heard as witnesses, as explained by French prosecutor Laure Beccuau in a press release.
The investigation stems from from reports made in January against X, including one from centrist French politician Eric Bothorel who expressed his “deep concerns about recent algorithm changes on the X platform, as well as apparent interference in its management since its acquisition by Elon Musk,” according to Le Monde newspaper. A second report, unveiled in Le Canard enchaîné, was made by a cybersecurity director who called out the overrepresentation of “nauseating political content” that’s “hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+, homophobic” on X since Musk took over the platform, and argued that it was meant to “skew democratic debate in France.”
French law enforcement authorities previously announced last July that they would investigate whether X had been engaged in “altering the functioning of an automated data processing system” and “fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system as part of an organized crime group.” Without naming Musk, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement sent to Variety that the alleged “offenses are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.”
The Paris prosecutor is now stating that the investigation intends on “denouncing Grok‘s operation on platform X, which have led to the dissemination of Holocaust denial content and sexual deepfakes.” Today’s release also states that the probe into Musk’s platform has now been expanded to look for clues of “complicity in the possession of child pornography images, complicity in the distribution, offering, or making available, as part of an organized gang, of child pornography images, infringement of personal image rights, and denial of crimes against humanity, among other serious offenses.”
Back in July, Musk slammed the French criminal investigation into X’s algorithm in a lengthy post accusing French authorities to be “politically motivated” and said it won’t comply with their demands in order to defend itself against “political censorship.”
The platform said that it has a “legal right” to refuse to cooperate with demands from French authorities who have “requested access to X’s recommendation algorithm and real-time data about all user posts.”
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Meanwhile, in the U.K. the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office also announced on Tuesday it had opened an investigation into X centered around their processing of data in relation to Grok AI.U.K. media regulator Ofcom launched its own investigation into the AI chatbot on Jan. 12 after Grok began creating and sharing deepfake sexual images. The European Commission is also investigating.
In an update on Tuesday Ofcom warned its investigation could take months and that it has sent “legally-binding information requests” to X. However it indicated it was unlikely to apply for a court order to ban access to X in the U.K. because “it would be a significant regulatory intervention and is not one we are likely to make routinely, given the impact it could have on freedom of expression in the U.K.” However if Musk is found to have breached the law, he faces a fine of up to 10% of X’s worldwide revenue or £18 million ($24.5 million), whichever is greater.
“Sexual deepfakes of women and children are a violent, unacceptable form of degradation,” said Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission’s executive VP of tech sovereignty, security and democracy. “With this investigation, we will determine whether X has met its legal obligations under the DSA, or whether it treated rights of European citizens — including those of women and children — as collateral damage of its service.”
From Variety US