France summons Musk for questioning as backlash over X deepfakes grows
French cybercrime authorities have called Elon Musk in for questioning as part of an investigation into X over content moderation, deepfakes and alleged political interference.
French cybercrime authorities have summoned Elon Musk for questioning as part of an investigation into the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, amid growing concern over deepfakes and online content moderation.
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Prosecutors said on Tuesday that police had searched X’s French offices with the involvement of EU police agency Europol.
The investigation, opened in January 2025, is examining whether the platform’s algorithm was used to interfere in French political debate.
Musk has been called to a voluntary interview in Paris on 20 April 2026, alongside former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino, in their roles as the platform’s de facto and de jure managers at the time of the alleged offences.
Several X employees have also been summoned as witnesses.
The probe covers suspected offences including complicity in the possession of child sexual abuse material and the denial of crimes against humanity.
It has since been widened to include concerns over the AI chatbot Grok, accused of spreading Holocaust denial content and sexualised deepfakes.
The move comes as both the UK and the EU pursue separate investigations into deepfake images generated by Grok.
X has denied wrongdoing, calling the French investigation politically motivated, while a lawyer for the company declined to comment