Prosecutors summon tech billionaire and company\u2019s ex-CEO for questioning as part of expanded investigation<\/b>
\nProsecutors summon tech billionaire and company\u2019s ex-CEO for questioning as part of expanded investigation
Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk\u2019s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company\u2019s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.
\u201cA search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor\u2019s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,\u201d the Paris prosecutors\u2019 office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.
It added in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for voluntary questioning \u201cin their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events\u201d. Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year.
The prosecutor\u2019s office said it was examining \u201calleged complicity\u201d in offences related to the platform, including the spreading of child abuse images and sexually explicit deepfakes, the denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group.
The French authority launched its investigation in January last year after a centre-right MP filed a complaint alleging that biased algorithms on the platform were likely to have distorted its data processing system and affected the kind of content it recommended.
The MP, \u00c9ric Bothorel, expressed \u201cdeep concern\u201d at \u201crecent algorithm changes\u201d and \u201capparent interference in [X\u2019s] management\u201d since Musk bought it in 2022. Other complaints said the changes had led to a surge in \u201cnauseating political content\u201d.
The investigation was later expanded after reports denouncing the behaviour of X\u2019s AI chatbot, Grok, which allegedly engaged in Holocaust denial and disseminated sexually explicit deepfakes.
X has been approached for comment on Tuesday\u2019s raid.
The company said last summer it did not intend to comply with the demands of French authorities in relation to the inquiry, which it described as \u201cpolitically motivated\u201d, and denied allegations of algorithm manipulation and \u201cfraudulent data extraction\u201d.
The platform added that it believed the investigation was \u201cdistorting French law to serve a political agenda, and ultimately restrict free speech\u201d. It said it was committed to \u201cdefending its fundamental rights, protecting user data and resisting political censorship\u201d.<\/p>\n