Paris prosecutors search Elon Musk's social media platform X places of work

[ad_1] PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors raided the places of work of social media platform X on Tuesday as a part of a preliminary investigation into allegations together with spreading little one sexual abuse photographs and deepfakes. They've additionally summoned billionaire proprietor Elon Musk for questioning.

X and Musk’s synthetic intelligence firm xAI additionally face intensifying scrutiny from Britain’s information privateness regulator, which opened formal investigations into how they dealt with private information once they developed and deployed Musk’s synthetic intelligence chatbot Grok.

Grok , which was constructed by xAI and is out there by X, sparked global outrage final month after it pumped out a torrent of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake photographs in response to requests from X customers.

The French investigation was opened in January final 12 months by the prosecutors’ cybercrime unit, the Paris prosecutors’ workplace stated in a press release. It’s wanting into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic photographs of minors, sexually express deepfakes, denial of crimes towards humanity and manipulation of an automatic information processing system as a part of an organized group, amongst different costs.

Prosecutors requested Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to attend “voluntary interviews” on April 20. Staff of X have additionally been summoned that very same week to be heard as witnesses, the assertion stated. Yaccarino was CEO from Might 2023 till July 2025.

A spokesperson for X didn't reply to a number of requests for remark. X’s lawyer in France, Kami Haeri, informed The Related Press: ″We don't make any remark at this stage.”

In a message posted on X, the Paris prosecutors’ workplace introduced the continuing searches on the firm’s places of work in France and stated it was leaving the platform whereas calling on followers to hitch it on different social media.

“At this stage, the conduct of the investigation relies on a constructive method, with the goal of in the end making certain that the X platform complies with French regulation, because it operates on the nationwide territory,” the prosecutors’ assertion stated.

European Union police company Europol “is supporting the French authorities on this,” Europol spokesperson Jan Op Gen Oorth informed the AP, with out elaborating.

French authorities opened their investigation after experiences from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X seemingly distorted the functioning of an automatic information processing system.

It expanded after Grok generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a criminal offense in France, and unfold sexually express deepfakes, the assertion stated.

Grok wrote in a extensively shared put up in French that fuel chambers on the Auschwitz-Birkenau loss of life camp had been designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B towards typhus” quite 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 unsuitable, saying it had been deleted and pointed to historic proof that Zyklon B was used to kill greater than 1 million folks in Auschwitz fuel chambers.

The chatbot additionally appeared to reward Adolf Hitler final 12 months, in feedback that X took down after complaints .

In Britain, the Info Commissioner’s Workplace stated it’s wanting into whether or not X and xAI adopted the regulation when processing private information and whether or not Grok had any measures in place to stop its use to generate “dangerous manipulated photographs.”

“The experiences about Grok increase deeply troubling questions on how folks’s private information has been used to generate intimate or sexualised photographs with out their information or consent, and whether or not the required safeguards had been put in place to stop this,” stated William Malcolm, an government director on the watchdog.

He didn’t specify what the penalty can be if the probe discovered the businesses didn’t adjust to information safety legal guidelines.

A separate investigation into Grok launched final month by the U.Okay. media regulator, Ofcom, is ongoing.

Ofcom stated Tuesday it’s nonetheless gathering proof and warned the probe might take months.

X has additionally been underneath stress from the EU. The 27-nation bloc’s government arm opened an investigation final month after Grok spewed nonconsensual sexualized deepfake photographs on the platform.

Brussels has already hit X with a 120-million euro (then-$140 million) fantastic for shortcomings underneath the bloc’s sweeping digital rules, together with blue checkmarks that broke the rules on “misleading design practices” that risked exposing customers to scams and manipulation.

On Monday, Musk ’s house exploration and rocket enterprise, SpaceX, announced that it acquired xAI in a deal that may also mix Grok, X and his satellite tv for pc communication firm Starlink.

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Related Press writers Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Lyon, France, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, Sylvia Hui and Kelvin Chan in London contributed to this report.

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