Elon Musk summoned to Paris over X baby abuse and deepfake allegations | EUROtoday

Elon Musk has been summoned to Paris as a part of an investigation into baby intercourse abuse materials and deepfakes on his social media platform X.

He has been summoned for “voluntary interviews” on Monday, alongside Linda Yaccarino, X’s former CEO.

The Paris prosecutor’s workplace mentioned that different workers of the platform can be heard as witnesses all through the week.

It is unclear whether or not Musk and Yaccarino will journey to France. A spokesperson for X didn’t reply to questions and Yaccarino’s present firm, eMed, didn’t reply a request despatched to the press e mail.

Musk was summoned after a February search on the French premises of X as a part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s workplace.

He and Yaccarino, who was CEO from May 2023 till July 2025, have been invited of their capacities as managers of X on the time of the occasions beneath investigation.

“These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors mentioned.

“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, insofar as it operates within the national territory.”

Asked whether or not Musk would threat sanctions if he skipped the listening to, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace declined to remark.

French authorities opened their investigation after experiences from a French politicians alleging that biased algorithms on X possible distorted the functioning of an automatic knowledge processing system. It expanded after the platform’s AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, against the law in France, and unfold sexually express deepfakes.

The investigation is trying into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic photos of minors, sexually express deepfakes, denial of crimes towards humanity and manipulation of an automatic knowledge processing system as a part of an organized group, amongst different fees.

Grok, which was constructed by xAI and is out there by means of X, sparked international outrage this 12 months after it pumped out a torrent of sexualised nonconsensual deepfake photos in response to requests from X customers.

Grok additionally wrote in a extensively shared submit in French that fuel chambers on the Auschwitz-Birkenau loss of life camp have been designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” somewhat than for mass homicide — language lengthy related to Holocaust denial.

In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was incorrect, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historic proof that Zyklon B was used to kill greater than 1 million individuals in Auschwitz fuel chambers.

French prosecutors alert US authorities

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s workplace alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal company liable for regulating and overseeing monetary markets — suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses,” prosecutors mentioned.

The Paris prosecutor’s workplace mentioned this might have been completed “ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of Space X and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.”

Justice Department brushes off call

According to The Wall Street Journalthe Justice Department told French law enforcement authorities that it would not facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. 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 its justice system to interfere with an American business.

“This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” said the letter quoted by The Wall Street Journal.

The letter also said France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”

French judicial authorities didn’t respond to requests for comments.

Reporters Without Borders’ lawsuit

Meanwhile, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it has lodged a new complaint against X with the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, It “targets the platform’s insurance policies that permit disinformation to flourish,” RSF mentioned, accusing the U.S. billionaire’s firm of repeated violations of the general public’s proper to dependable data.

“Disinformation campaigns are flooding X, some of which have accumulated several hundred thousand views. Although the staff at Elon Musk’s platform are well aware of the situation, this has not stopped them from responding to RSF’s repeated alerts with automated refusals to remove the content in question,” RSF said.

“This is a deliberate policy instated by X, and it is incompatible with the public’s right to reliable information.”