Elon Musk decries French raid on X's offices in Paris a ‘political attack’ — What is happening?

French prosecutors on Tuesday, 3 February, raided the offices of social media platform X, as part of a preliminary probe into allegations involving the distribution of child sexual abuse images and deepfakes. French prosecutors have also summoned X's billionaire owner, Elon Musk, for questioning, AP reported.

Tech tycoon Musk slammed French authorities' raid of the offices of X, amid a probe into alleged political interference and sexual deepfakes.

"This is a political attack," the billionaire wrote on social media, adding in a separate X post that authorities in France should instead focus on targeting sex criminals.

What is the matter?

According to a report by the Associated Press, the French investigation was opened in January last year by the prosecutors' cybercrime unit, the Paris prosecutors' office said in a statement. The investigation is looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group, among other charges.

Prosecutors asked Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to attend “voluntary interviews” on 20 April. Prosecutors also summoned employees of X that same week to be heard as witnesses, the statement said, as reported by AP.

Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

In a post on its own platform, X denied the allegations, calling the raid on its Paris office “an abusive act of law enforcement theatre designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice.”

The Paris prosecutors’ office posted on X that searches are underway at the company’s French offices. The message also said the office was leaving the platform and encouraged followers to connect on other social media channels.

“At this stage, the conduct of the investigation is based on a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French law, as it operates on the national territory,” the prosecutors' statement said.

The European Union police agency Europol “is supporting the French authorities in this,” spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth told the AP, without elaborating.

Biased algorithms on X?

French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system.

It expanded after Grok generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes, the statement said.

Grok wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for "disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus" rather than for mass murder -- language long associated with Holocaust denial, AP reported.

In subsequent posts on X, the chatbot corrected its earlier response, admitted it was wrong, said it had deleted the message, and cited historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill over 1 million people in the Auschwitz gas chambers.

The chatbot also appeared to praise Adolf Hitler last year in comments that X took down after complaints.

In Britain, the Information Commissioner's Office said it is looking into whether X and xAI complied with the law when processing personal data and whether Grok had any measures in place to prevent its use in generating “harmful manipulated images.”

“The reports about Grok raise deeply troubling questions about how people's personal data has been used to generate intimate or sexualised images without their knowledge or consent, and whether the necessary safeguards were put in place to prevent this,” said William Malcolm, an executive director at the watchdog.

He did not specify what the penalty would be if the probe found the companies did not comply with data protection laws.

A separate investigation into Grok launched last month by the UK media regulator, Ofcom, is ongoing.

Ofcom said Tuesday it is still gathering evidence and warned the probe could take months.

X has also faced pressure from the EU. Last month, the bloc’s executive arm launched an investigation after Grok generated nonconsensual, sexualized deepfake images on the platform.

Brussels previously fined X 120 million euros (around $140 million at the time) for violations of the EU’s digital regulations, including issues with blue checkmarks that breached rules on “deceptive design practices,” potentially putting users at risk of scams and manipulation, AP reported.

On Monday, Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX, announced its acquisition of xAI in a deal that will integrate Grok, X, and Musk’s satellite communications company, Starlink.

(With inputs from agencies)