The cybercrime unit of the Paris Prosecutor’s Office raided Elon Musk’s X offices in Paris on February 3.
The search of the offices located in the chic 2nd arrondissement district, conducted in collaboration with the National Gendarmerie’s cybercrime unit and Europol, is part of a preliminary investigation into a range of alleged offenses.
The investigation was opened in January 2025 after two complaints against X were reported, one by French MP Eric Bothorel and another by the cybersecurity director of an unnamed French public agency.
The former said he was “very concerned” by recent changes in X’s algorithm and managerial decisions since Elon Musk took over the social media platform.
The latter highlighted that algorithm changes had artificially amplified the overrepresentation of “noxious political content."
The investigation was initially opened for three alleged offenses: operating an illegal online platform as part of an organized group, fraudulent data extraction and tampering with automated data-processing systems.
However, it has gradually expanded as new evidence came to light, notably when many users reported that X’s AI chatbot, Grok, was undressing pictures of women and girls, including underaged girls, upon request by users.
In 2025, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office discovered that a recent change in X’s child sexual abuse material (CSAM) detection tool had resulted in a "significant drop in reports" of such content. Between June and October 2025, X’s submissions to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding CSAM in France fell by 81.4%, according to prosecutors.
Therefore, in November 2025, the prosecutor’s office’s specialized J3 unit added allegations of complicity in the possession of CSAM and the organized distribution, offering or making available of such content to the investigation.
In a statement published on February 3, Laure Beccuau, a French State Prosecutor, said Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X Corp from 2023 to 2025, were summoned for voluntary interviews in Paris on April 20, 2026.
“At this stage, the investigation is being conducted in a constructive approach, with the ultimate aim of ensuring the X platform's compliance with French laws, given that it operates on national territory,” Beccuau added.
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