{"id":113863,"date":"2026-02-03T12:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113863"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:05:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:05:00","slug":"paris-prosecutors-raid-france-offices-of-elon-musks-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113863","title":{"rendered":"Paris prosecutors raid France offices of Elon Musk\u2019s X"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>2 Minute, 8 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
\n

The French offices of Elon Musk\u2019s X have been raided by the Paris prosecutor\u2019s cyber-crime unit, as part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child pornography.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s office said the probe began in January 2025 when it started looking into content recommended by the social media platform\u2019s algorithm, before being widened to include its controversial AI chatbot, Grok.<\/p>\n

In a statement, it added that both Musk and former X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino had been summoned to appear at hearings in April.<\/p>\n

X has yet to comment but has previously characterised the investigation as an attack on free speech.<\/p>\n

X previously described the widening of the probe, in July 2025,\u00a0in a post at the time,\u00a0as \u201cpolitically-motivated\u201d and denied allegations it had manipulated its algorithm.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say they are nowinvestigating whether X has broken the law across multiple areas.<\/p>\n

Among potential crimes it said it would investigate were complicity in possession or organised distribution of images of children of a pornographic nature, infringement of people\u2019s image rights with sexual deepfakes and fraudulent data extraction by an organised group.<\/p>\n

The prosecutor\u2019s office also said it was leaving X and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram from now on.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s social media platform has recently been subject to intense scrutiny over sexualised images generated and edited on the site using its AI tool Grok.<\/p>\n

The images \u2013 often made using real images of women without their consent \u2013 prompted a barrage of criticism from victims, online safety campaigners and politicians.<\/p>\n

The company\u00a0eventually intervened\u00a0to prevent the practice.<\/p>\n

In late January, the European Commission\u00a0announced an investigation\u00a0into its parent company xAI over concerns about the images.<\/p>\n

A similar probe had been\u00a0previously launched\u00a0by the UK regulator, Ofcom.<\/p>\n

Pavel Durov \u2013 founder of the messaging app Telegram \u2013 criticised the French authorities, accusing France of being \u201cthe only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be mistaken: this is not a free country,\u201d he added\u00a0in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Durov was\u00a0arrested and detained in France\u00a0in August 2024 over alleged moderation lapses on his messaging app, which the Paris prosecutor\u2019s office said had failed to curb criminal activity.<\/p>\n

He was permitted to leave the country last March after the platform made some changes to the way it operates following the arrest.<\/p>\n

These included sharing some user data\u00a0with authorities in response to legal requests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n \n
\n \n \"Happy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Happy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sad\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sad <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Excited\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Excited <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Sleepy\"\n <\/a>\n
\n Sleepy <\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n \n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Angry\"\n <\/a>\n
Angry<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n \n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n
\n \n \"Surprise\"\n <\/a>\n
Surprise<\/div>\n
\n 0<\/span>\n 0<\/span> %<\/span>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The French offices of Elon Musk’s X have been raided by the Paris prosecutor’s cyber-crime unit, as part of an investigation into suspected offences including unlawful data extraction and complicity in the possession of child pornography.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1910,13166,10,9,2306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-musk","category-politics","category-popular","category-x"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}