Pallade Veneta - France summons Musk, raids X offices as deepfake backlash grows

The operation comes as both Britain and the European Union have opened separate probes into the creation of sexualised deepfakes of women and children by Musk's AI chatbot Grok.

The French investigation, which began in January 2025 over allegations X's algorithm was used to interfere in French politics, now also includes a probe into Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denials and sexual deepfakes.

"Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr Elon Musk and Ms Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events," the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.

Authorities were conducting a search on Tuesday morning at X's French premises as part of the investigation, the prosecutor's office added.

EU police agency Europol said it provided on-the-ground support, deploying an analyst, for Tuesday's raid.

The French probe focuses on several suspected criminal offences including complicity in possessing child sexual abuse material and denial of crimes against humanity.

X employees have also been summoned to appear between April 20 and 24 "to be heard as witnesses", said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office announced in a final message on X it would be leaving the platform.

Contacted by AFP, a lawyer for X, Kami Haeri, declined to comment.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov -- who is under investigation in France over illegal content on his messaging app -- however blasted the raid.

"France is the only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom," the Russian-born entrepreneur wrote on X, naming Telegram, TikTok, and X.

Durov, who holds French and Russian passports, has been accused of complicity in running an online platform that allowed illicit transactions, images of child sex abuse and other illegal content -- allegations he denies.

-'Serious concerns'-

The investigation comes as part of a broader international backlash against Grok after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes".

In a separate probe, Britain's data regulator on Tuesday launched investigations into Musk's X and xAI to see whether the companies complied with personal data laws when it came to Grok's generation of sexualised deepfakes.

"The reported creation and circulation of such content raises serious concerns under UK data protection law and presents a risk of significant potential harm to the public," the Information Commissioner's Office said in a statement.

In late January, the European Union also hit X with an investigation over Grok's generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors.

- 'Politically motivated' -

Paris cybercrime prosecutors called for the police probe in July 2025 to investigate suspected crimes -- including manipulating and extracting data from automated systems "as part of a criminal gang" -- after receiving two complaints in January 2025.

One of those came from Eric Bothorel, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, who alleged "reduced diversity of voices and options" and "personal interventions" by Musk in the platform's management since he took it over in 2022.

Musk had at the time raised hackles in Europe with political sallies, including vocal backing for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Laurent Buanec, X's director for France, pushed back against the investigation in January last year, saying X had "strict, clear and public rules" that protected the platform from hate speech and disinformation.

The US government also issued a harsh condemnation in July, saying it would defend the free speech of Americans against "acts of foreign censorship".

The social media platform, which has denied the allegations, also in July called the investigation "politically motivated".

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C.Conti--PV