French prosecutors are bringing charges against Elon Musk and his social platform
The Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday it had launched an investigation into X on charges including conspiracy to possess and distribute child sexual abuse images and illegal collection of personal data. It is also investigating allegations of distributing non-consensual images or other content and denying crimes against humanity.
X and its parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.
The investigation comes less than three weeks after Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino were called to “volunteer interviews” to discuss the allegations. They did not turn up, but French authorities said that would not hamper the investigation.
Musk was summoned following a search of X’s French offices in February as part of an investigation launched in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. At the time of the incident, Musk and Yacarino were invited as managers of X. Yacarino will serve as CEO from May 2023 to July 2025.
French authorities launched an investigation after French lawmakers reported that biased algorithms on X could distort the functionality of automated data-processing systems. It grew in size after the artificial intelligence system Grok generated posts purporting to deny the Holocaust, a crime committed in France, and spread explicit deepfakes.
It is investigating charges of alleged “conspiracy” to possess and distribute images of sexual abuse of minors, explicit deepfake images, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of automated data processing systems as part of an organized group.
Grok, built by xAI and delivered through X, sparked global outrage this year when it released a trove of non-consensual pornographic images at the request of X users.
Gronk also wrote in a widely shared post in French that the gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed “to be sterilized with Zyklon B to fight typhus” and not for mass murder – language long associated with Holocaust denial.
In a later post on
In March this year, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Prosecutors stated that “the controversy surrounding Grok’s sexually explicit deepfakes may have been deliberately planned to artificially inflate the value of X and xAI companies, which may constitute a criminal offense.”
