Elon Musk has hit back at a police raid on X’s French offices and an investigation into accusations that his social media platform manipulates its algorithms and data feeds as well as concerns over the content produced by its AI tool Grok.
Officers from France’s national cyber unit raided X’s French HQ in Paris on Tuesday in conjunction with European crime agency Europol as part of the investigation.
“This is a political attack”, wrote Musk on X late Tuesday, pointing to a wider statement posted on the platform’s Global Government Affairs (GGA) handle denouncing the raid in more detail.
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“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 rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice,” read the GGA post.
The investigation was launched in January 2025 after French politician Éric Bothorel published a report suggesting the platform was manipulating its algorithms and automated data feeds.
The Paris Prosecutor said in a statement released in the wake of the raid, that it had since widened the scope of the probe to include concerns about X’s AI tool Grok, following complaints that it was supporting the dissemination of Holocaust denial content and sexually explicit deepfakes.
It said the probe was investigating several potential criminal offenses including: “complicity in the organized distribution, offering, or making available of child pornography images of minors; violation of personal image rights (sexual deepfakes), denial of crimes against humanity (Holocaust denial); organized fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system; organized falsification of the operation of an automated data processing system and organized administration of an illegal online platform.”
The GGA post said X denied the allegations.
“The allegations underlying today’s raid are baseless and X categorically denies any wrongdoing. Today’s staged raid reinforces our conviction that this investigation distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech. X is committed to defending its fundamental rights and the rights of its users. We will not be intimidated by the actions of French judicial authorities today.”
As announced on Tuesday, the Public Prosecutor has summoned Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino to answer questions related to the investigation at a public hearing in Paris on April 20. Musk has not as yet publicly stated whether he plans to attend.
Elon’s controversial social media platform is under investigation on a number of fronts in Europe. Last month, the European Commission announced that it had joined forces with California’s attorney general and UK regulator Ofcom in opening an investigation into X’s AI tool Grok and its creation of sexualized images.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) also announced on Tuesday (Feb 3) that it had opened formal investigations into X probing its processing of personal data in relation to the Grok system and “its potential to produce harmful sexualised image and video content.”