The Paris prosecutor's office recently announced that it has officially opened a criminal investigation into social platform X and its owner Elon Musk, seeking multiple charges involving child sexual abuse images, deepfakes, disinformation, and denial of crimes against humanity. The investigation was launched by the Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit in January 2025, and in February, authorities searched X's office premises in France. Musk himself was later summoned.
Prosecutors allege that X platform is involved in conspiracy to possess and distribute child sexual abuse images, production of sexual deepfake content, illegal collection of personal data, and information manipulation through its AI system Grok. In March, the Paris prosecutor's office sent warnings to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, suggesting that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to inflate the valuation of X and xAI, potentially constituting a criminal offense. The investigation also covers broader allegations that X collaborated with organized groups to manipulate automated data processing systems and deny crimes against humanity.
