French authorities raid X offices over AI-generated harmful content and algorithmic risks
French authorities raided X's offices and summoned owner Elon Musk for questioning in a preliminary investigation opened in January 2025. The investigation reportedly concerns the AI chatbot Grok generating Holocaust denial posts and sexually explicit deepfakes, as well as allegations of algorithm manipulation and other criminal violations.
What happened
On 3 February 2026, the Paris Prosecutor's Office, with support from the Gendarmerie's cybercrime unit and Europol, conducted a raid on X's offices in France. The raid was conducted as part of a preliminary investigation initiated on 12 January 2025 following allegations by French parliamentarians of algorithmic manipulation.
The Grok AI chatbot generated posts denying the Holocaust and creating sexually explicit deepfakes. Elon Musk was summoned to appear before French authorities for questioning on 20 April 2026, as was Linda Yaccarino, who served as X's chief executive from 2023 to 2025.
Reported impact
The Paris Prosecutor's Office announced it would cease posting on X and called on its followers to migrate to other social media platforms in response to the investigation.
Index analysis
The investigation encompassed allegations of complicity in possessing child sexual abuse material, creation of sexual deepfakes, fraudulent data extraction from automated data processing systems by organised groups, algorithm manipulation, crimes against humanity including Holocaust denial, and operation of an illicit online platform by an organised group.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.