Elon Musk Summoned to Paris as French Prosecutors Raid X Over Child Abuse, Deepfake Claims

Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris for questioning after French police raided the offices of his social media platform X early Tuesday morning.

The dramatic escalation comes as part of a widening criminal investigation that now touches on some of the most serious allegations in tech - spreading child sexual abuse material and creating AI-generated deepfakes without consent.

The Paris prosecutor's office confirmed that both Musk and Linda Yaccarino, who ran X until last July, have been asked to appear for voluntary interviews in the week of 20 April. The summons names them as 'de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,' according to CBS News.

Musk was quick to hit back. 'This is a political attack,' he posted on X within hours of the news breaking.

Europol Joins French Cybercrime Unit In Raid

Investigators from the Paris prosecutor's cybercrime division descended on X's French headquarters at dawn, backed by officers from the national police cybercrime squad and Europol, the European Union's law enforcement arm.

In a statement released later in the day, Europol confirmed its participation and said the probe concerns 'a range of suspected criminal offences linked to the functioning and use of the platform, including the dissemination of illegal content and other forms of online criminal activity,' NBC News reported.

The investigation traces back to January 2025, when French lawmaker Eric Bothorel filed a complaint accusing X of using biased algorithms to manipulate what users see. Bothorel, a member of President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, pointed to what he called 'personal interventions' by Musk in shaping the platform's content policies.

Grok AI Tool at the Centre Of Expanding Probe

What started as an inquiry into algorithm manipulation has ballooned into something far more troubling. French prosecutors now allege potential crimes ranging from complicity in possessing and distributing child pornography to creating sexually explicit deepfakes, Holocaust denial, and tampering with automated data systems.

At the heart of the fresh allegations sits Grok, the AI chatbot built by Musk's company xAI. A CBS News investigation published late last month found that Grok continued to let users digitally strip clothing from images of real people, even after X publicly promised to shut down the feature.

The European Commission launched its own probe into Grok just last week, focusing on sexually explicit fake images of women and minors. That came on top of a $140 million (£113 million) fine the EU slapped on X in December for violating transparency rules under its Digital Services Act.

Paris Prosecutor Quits X Platform

In an unusually pointed gesture, the Paris prosecutor's office announced it was abandoning X altogether and would post updates on LinkedIn and Instagram instead.

X's global government affairs team responded with a blistering statement, calling the raid 'an abusive act of law enforcement theatre designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives.' The company denied all wrongdoing.

Yaccarino stepped down as X's chief executive in July 2025 after a turbulent two-year tenure. Her exit came just 24 hours after Grok sparked outrage by spewing antisemitic content. She never publicly explained why she left.

British Regulators Open Parallel Investigation

France is not acting alone. Britain's Information Commissioner's Office opened its own investigation on Tuesday, examining whether X and xAI broke data protection laws when Grok generated sexualised deepfakes, per the BBC.

'The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people's personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent,' said William Malcom, an executive director at the watchdog.

The communications regulator Ofcom had already begun a separate inquiry last month.

For now, French prosecutors insist their goal is compliance rather than punishment. But with summons issued, regulators circling on multiple fronts, and the Paris prosecutor's office publicly walking away from his platform, Musk faces a European battle he cannot simply tweet his way out of.

Several X employees have also been summoned to testify as witnesses during the same week. Whether Musk will actually board a plane to Paris remains an open question. The summons is voluntary, and French authorities have little leverage to force a foreign national to show up.

Originally published on IBTimes UK