The French prosecutor’s office invited American billionaire Elon Musk to appear in Paris for questioning as part of the investigation into his social network X. The hearing is scheduled for April 20, 2026 and will be voluntary. In addition to Musk, former X CEO Linda Yaccarino and other employees of the platform were also called to testify as witnesses in the period from April 20 to 24, added the AFP agency in its report.
As part of an investigation into alleged political interference and the spread of sexual deepfake material on the X platform the cyber police unit of the French Gendarmerie and the police organization Europol on Tuesday they toured the company’s offices in France.
This police operation was carried out at the same time as an ongoing investigation into the creation of sexualized deepfakes of women and children by the Grok chatbot in Britain and the European Union. Telegram platform founder Pavel Durov, who is under investigation in France for illegal content in his messaging app, criticized the raid on the X offices.
“France is the only country in the world that prosecutes all social networks that give people a certain degree of freedom,” wrote a Russian businessman on X, naming Telegram, TikTok and X. Durov, who holds a French and a Russian passport, was accused of complicity in operating an online platform enabling illegal transactions, publishing child sexual abuse and other illegal content. Durov denies these allegations.
The X investigation, which has been ongoing in France since the beginning of 2025, focuses on the possible interference of the social network in French politics and on suspicions of manipulation of the algorithm or unauthorized acquisition of data. Instigations to start the investigation came from MPs Éric Bothorel from the government party Obrod (RE) and Arthur Delaport from the Socialist Party (PS), who drew attention to the reduction of the diversity of opinions, non-transparent modifications of the algorithm and Musk’s personal interventions in the management of X. According to the mentioned politicians, this social medium represents “a real threat to democracy”.
Platform X is also under investigation in France for content generated by AI chatbot Grok. These are a variety of posts, including Holocaust denial and the spread of sexual deepfake videos. The investigation also extended to the suspicion of possession of child pornography. French authorities have also investigated other technology companies in the recent past including Telegram, Shein or AliExpress. This was done, among other things, based on notifications regarding their illegal content.
The EU faces repeated threats from the US to retaliate against the enforcement of technology rules for its actions in the X case. which President Donald Trump’s administration says limit free speech and unfairly target American companies.
