The search followed an investigation into Grok’s generation of explicit ‘deep fakes,’ which X has taken action to stop, and the platform’s algorithm.
French police specializing in cybercrime, assisted by the European Union’s crime-fighting agency Europol, have raided the offices of Elon Musk’s social media platform X, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday.
The prosecutor’s announcement said the search relates to an investigation begun in January 2025 into the content promoted by the X algorithm, which widened in July 2025 to include its AI chatbot, Grok.
The prosecutor’s office said that both Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino have been summoned to appear at hearings in April as part of its probe.
X did not immediately respond to requests for comment but has previously described the investigation as an attack on free speech and as “politically motivated.”
‘Free Speech’ and ‘Privacy’ Concerns
In July 2025, the social media company denied allegations of manipulating its algorithm, sharing a statement that said: “This investigation, instigated by French politician Eric Bothorel, egregiously undermines X’s fundamental right to due process and threatens our users’ rights to privacy and free speech.
“Mr Bothorel has accused X of manipulating its algorithm for ‘foreign interference’ purposes, an allegation which is completely false.”
Among potential crimes the prosecutor’s office said it would investigate were complicity in possession or organized distribution of images of children of a pornographic nature, infringement of people’s rights through deep fake sexual images, and fraudulent data extraction by an organized group.
The prosecutor’s office also announced it was leaving the X platform and would now communicate on LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, and Instagram, owned by Meta.
Action Over Grok
Musk’s platform recently intervened to prevent sexualized images from being generated and edited on X using its Grok, following scrutiny of its practices.
X said on Jan. 14 it was imposing limits on Grok’s image editing capabilities, after countries around the world opened investigations and threatened lawsuits over the use of the built-in artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot to generate sexually explicit images.
X’s “Safety” unit wrote in a statement posted on the social media platform that it had implemented measures to prevent the Grok account from editing images of real people to make them appear in revealing clothing, such as bikinis.
The statement said that image creation and editing via the Grok account is now only available for paid subscribers, to add an “extra layer of protection by helping to ensure that individuals who attempt to abuse the Grok account to violate the law or our policies can be held accountable.”
