French prosecutors summon Elon Musk over allegations of child abuse images and deepfakes on X
PARIS– PARIS (AP) — Elon Musk was summoned to Paris on Monday, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct linked to social media platform X, including the distribution of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.
The richest man in the world and Linda Yaccarino, former CEO of
It is still unclear whether Musk and Yaccarino will travel to Paris. A spokesperson for
French prosecutors also suspect that the controversy surrounding deepfakes of the Grok platform’s AI system was concocted to increase the value of Musk-owned companies ahead of a listing on a key market, and have alerted US authorities. Musk welcomed a report that US justice officials refused to help French investigators, posting on X: “This must stop.”
Musk was summoned after a search carried out in February in the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino were invited in their capacity as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino served as CEO from May 2023 to July 2025.
“These voluntary interviews with executives are intended to allow them to present their position on the facts and, if applicable, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, to the extent that it operates on national territory.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office said that the potential non-appearance of Musk and Yaccarino on Monday “does not constitute an obstacle to the continuation of investigations.”
French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that X-biased algorithms could distort the operation of an automated data processing system. It developed after the Grok AI system generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.
In particular, it is investigating allegations of “complicity” in the possession and dissemination of pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system in an organized group.
Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after releasing a torrent of sexualized, non-consensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.
Grok also wrote in a widely shared French-language article that the gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp were designed for “Zyklon B disinfection against typhus” rather than mass murder – language long associated with Holocaust denial.
In subsequent messages on
In March, Paris prosecutors alerted the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the US federal agency responsible for regulating and supervising financial markets – suggesting “that the controversy surrounding the sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially increase the value of Companies X and xAI – which could constitute criminal offenses,” prosecutors said.
The Paris prosecutor’s office estimated that this could have been done “before the listing planned for June 2026 of the new entity resulting from the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum”.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department has told French law enforcement authorities that it will not facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X case. The newspaper reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a two-page letter last week, accused the French of inappropriately using their justice system to interfere with an American company.
The letter also states that France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an attempt to draw the United States into a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at unfairly regulating, through legal action, the commercial activities of a social media platform.”
French judicial authorities did not respond to requests for comment.
The cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office has launched a series of investigations in recent years into alleged illegal activities of Internet platforms.
The French-speaking site Coco, cited in the historic trial which made Gisèle Pelicot a global icon in the fight against sexual violence, closed its doors in 2024, its director being accused, among other things, of complicity in the distribution of child pornography and trafficking of children for sexual purposes.
Pavel Durov, the founder of messaging app Telegram, has been charged and placed under judicial supervision for allegedly allowing criminal activity on the platform, including child pornography and drug trafficking.
Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into TikTok last year over allegations that the platform allowed content inciting suicide and that its algorithms could encourage vulnerable young people to commit suicide.
Furthermore, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced that it had filed a new complaint against
___
Associated Press reporter Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this story.
