The Japan Times - X hits back after France summons Musk, raids offices in deepfake probe

The search came as both Britain and the European Union have opened investigations into the creation of sexualised deepfakes of women and children by Musk's AI chatbot Grok.

A proposal by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to become the latest country to ban social media for under 16s enraged Musk who on Tuesday called Sanchez "a tyrant and traitor" to Spain's people.

French authorities conducted a search on Tuesday at X's French premises as part of an investigation, which began in January 2025, over allegations that X's algorithm was used to interfere in French politics. It now also includes a probe into the Grok AI tool's dissemination of Holocaust denials and sexual deepfakes.

EU police agency Europol said it provided an analyst to give on-the-ground support in the search.

"The Paris Public Prosecutor's office widely publicized the raid -- making clear that today's action was an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals," X's Global Government Affairs team posted on the platform.

"The allegations underlying today's raid are baseless and X categorically denies any wrongdoing."

The Paris prosecutor's office said that "summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr Elon Musk and Ms Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events" being investigated.

Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.

The French probe focuses on alleged offences including complicity in possessing child sexual abuse material and denial of crimes against humanity.

X employees have also been summoned to appear between April 20 and 24 "to be heard as witnesses", said Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, whose office announced in a final message on X it would be leaving the platform.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov -- who is under investigation in France over illegal content on his messaging app -- also blasted the raid.

"France is the only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom," the Russian-born entrepreneur wrote on X, naming Telegram, TikTok, and X.

Durov, who holds French and Russian passports, has been accused of complicity in running an online platform that allowed illicit transactions, images of child sex abuse and other illegal content. He denies the allegations.

-'Serious concerns'-

There has been a broader international backlash against Grok after it emerged that users could sexualise images of women and children using simple text prompts such as "put her in a bikini" or "remove her clothes".

Britain's data regulator on Tuesday launched investigations into Musk's X and xAI to see whether the companies complied with personal data laws in Grok's generation of sexualised deepfakes.

"The reported creation and circulation of such content raises serious concerns under UK data protection law and presents a risk of significant potential harm to the public," the Information Commissioner's Office said in a statement.

In January, the European Union also hit X with an investigation over Grok's generation of sexualised deepfake images of women and minors.

- 'Politically motivated' -

Paris cybercrime prosecutors called for the police probe in July 2025 to investigate suspected crimes -- including manipulating and extracting data from automated systems "as part of a criminal gang" -- after receiving two complaints in January 2025.

One complaint was made by Eric Bothorel, a lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron's centrist party, who alleged "reduced diversity of voices and options" and "personal interventions" by Musk in the platform's management since he took it over in 2022.

Musk has faced criticism for backing right wing parties in Europe, including vocal backing for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

On top of X's condemnation of the investigation and Tuesday's raid, the US administration said in July it would defend the free speech of Americans against "acts of foreign censorship".

M.Fujitav--JT