Musk and former CEO summoned to provide proof on April 20
Investigation into alleged algorithmic bias started in early 2025
Inquiry considering that widened to encompass AI chatbot Grok
Europe and US increasingly more at odds over Big Tech and free speech
UK privateness watchdog additionally launches investigation into Grok.
French police raided the workplaces of Elon Musk's social media community X on Tuesday and prosecutors ordered the tech billionaire to face questions in a widening investigation, amid developing scrutiny of the platform by means of authorities throughout Europe.The raid with the aid of the Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit and Musk's summoning - which should in addition extend tensions between Europe and the U.S. over Big Tech and free speech - are linked to a year-long investigation into suspected abuse of algorithms and fraudulent facts extraction by means of X or its executives.Britain's privateness watchdog, meanwhile, additionally kicked off a formal investigation into Musk's artificial-intelligence chatbot Grok over the processing of private records and its attainable to produce damaging sexualized pix and video content."The Paris Public Prosecutor's Office is evidently trying to exert stress on X's senior administration in the United States through concentrated on our French entity and employees, who are now not the center of attention of this investigation," X stated in a statement."The Prosecutor's Office has unnoticed the installed procedural mechanisms to achieve proof in compliance with global treaties and X’s rights to protect itself."Referring to the raids, Musk stated in a put up on X, "This is a political attack."
INVESTIGATION INCLUDES SEXUALLY EXPLICIT DEEPFAKES
In a statement, the Paris prosecutor's workplace stated it had broadened the scope of its investigation following complaints over the functioning of Grok.
The French probe will now additionally look into alleged complicity in the "detention and diffusion" of snap shots of a child‑pornographic nature and the violation of a person's picture rights with sexually specific deepfakes, amongst different conceivable crimes.Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino had been summoned to a listening to on April 20. Other X personnel have been additionally summoned as witnesses.In July, Musk denied the preliminary accusations and stated French prosecutors have been launching a "politically-motivated crook investigation"."At this stage, the habits of this investigation is phase of a positive approach, with the intention of sooner or later making sure that the X platform complies with French laws, insofar as it operates on country wide territory,"
WIDENING PROBES INTO X
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office, meanwhile, stated it used to be investigating the xAI chatbot, following reviews that Grok had been used to generate non‑consensual sexual imagery of individuals, together with children.
Britain's media regulator Ofcom stated one by one it used to be putting out the subsequent steps in its investigation into X launched remaining month, even though it furnished few details.Ofcom is searching for to verify if the enterprise has accomplished ample to mitigate the danger of sexual deepfakes spreading on its social media platform. But it has stated it was once now not investigating xAI, which operates the Grok chatbot, as it falls past the scope of cutting-edge law.The European Union launched an investigation ultimate week into X too, in search of to verify whether or not it disseminated unlawful content, following a public outcry over the spreading of manipulated sexualized pix by way of Grok.
The chatbot continues to generate sexualized snap shots of human beings even when customers explicitly warn that the topics do now not consent, Reuters has found.xAI put some restrictions on Grok's image-generation feature in response to the backlash closing month.
PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE QUITTING X
The Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit is conducting the investigation in France, collectively with the French police's very own cybercrime unit and Europol. The unit until now arrested Telegram founder Pavel Durov in 2024 over expenses consisting of complicity in equipped crime carried out on the messaging app, costs his legal professional has described as "absurd".The prosecutor's workplace stated it launched the investigation after being contacted through a lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms in X had been probably to have distorted the operation of an automatic information processing system."Glad to see that my criticism from January 2025 is yielding results!" that lawmaker, Eric Bothorel, stated on X. "In Europe, and especially in France, the Rule of Law capacity that no one is above the law."The prosecutor's workplace additionally stated it used to be leaving the X social media platform and would.