French prosecutors raided the Paris offices of X on Tuesday and ordered founder Elon Musk to face questioning, widening a yearlong investigation into alleged abuse of algorithms and fraudulent data extraction, according to French newspaper Le Monde.
The probe, led by the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit, began a year ago over allegations that X’s algorithms were used to interfere in French politics. The probe has now widened to include complaints about its AI chatbot Grok generating unsanctioned sexual images.
Musk and former X Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino were summoned to a “voluntary interview” on April 20, the paper reported. Other staff were also summoned as witnesses.
In a post on X, the company said the allegations behind the raid are “baseless” and it “categorically denies any wrongdoing.” Further, the company called the raid “staged” and said the investigation “distorts French law, circumvents due process and endangers free speech.”
On the same day, Britain’s data watchdog opened an investigation into X and xAI over personal data use and harmful sexual imagery. In late January, the European Union launched a separate investigation into whether Grok disseminated sexualized content of women and minors.