French authorities have intensified scrutiny of social media platform X after launching coordinated raids on the company’s offices in France and summoning its owner, billionaire Elon Musk, for questioning over alleged political interference.
The Paris public prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that Musk had been invited to attend a “voluntary interview” in connection with an ongoing cybercrime investigation into whether X’s recommendation algorithm was used to influence French political discourse. The probe, which involves the European Union’s police agency, Europol, follows searches carried out at X’s French premises the same day.
According to prosecutors, formal invitations were issued for interviews scheduled for April 20, 2026, in Paris. The summonses were addressed to Elon Musk and former X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino, identified as the de facto and de jure managers of the platform at the time of the alleged incidents. Yaccarino stepped down from her role in July last year after serving two years as CEO.
The investigation traces its origins to January 2025, when French cybercrime prosecutors received two formal complaints alleging that X’s systems were being used to distort public debate. One complaint was filed by Eric Bothorel, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, who accused the platform of reducing the diversity of political viewpoints and pointed to Musk’s direct involvement in content moderation and platform governance since his takeover of the company in 2022.
Prosecutors said the case was later expanded to include additional concerns about the platform’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok. Reports submitted to investigators alleged that the AI tool contributed to the spread of Holocaust denial narratives and the circulation of sexual deepfake content on X, prompting authorities to widen the scope of the probe.
In July 2025, French prosecutors formally ordered a police investigation into suspected offences, including the alleged manipulation and extraction of data from automated systems as part of organised criminal activity.
X has consistently rejected the allegations. In January 2025, the company’s France director, Laurent Buanec, defended the platform, insisting that X operates under “strict, clear and public rules” designed to combat hate speech and disinformation.
The investigation has also drawn international attention. In July, the United States government strongly criticised the French action, vowing to protect the free speech rights of Americans against what it described as foreign censorship. X, for its part, has described the probe as politically motivated.
The French case comes amid mounting regulatory pressure on X within the European Union. In late January, EU authorities opened a separate investigation into Grok over its alleged generation of sexualised deepfake images involving women and minors. That move has further strained transatlantic relations, as Washington has repeatedly warned against what it views as disproportionate enforcement of European tech regulations targeting US-based companies.
French prosecutors said investigations are ongoing and declined to comment on possible next steps beyond the planned interviews.
