The Paris public prosecutor's office has formally sought multiple criminal charges against Elon Musk and his social media platform X, involving child sexual abuse material distribution, deepfakes, misinformation, and the platform's AI system Grok's alleged "complicity in denying crimes against humanity." According to Paris prosecutors, the investigation was launched by the cybercrime unit in January 2025, with a raid on X's French premises carried out in February, followed by a judicial summons for Musk himself.
The investigation focuses on X's alleged "conspiracy to possess and distribute child sexual abuse images," the production and dissemination of sexually explicit deepfake content, unlawful collection of personal data, and organized manipulation of automated data processing systems. Additionally, in March, the Paris prosecutor's office notified the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, stating that the controversy over Grok's explicit deepfake output "may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially inflate the valuation of X and xAI, thereby constituting a criminal offense." These charges directly link the platform's AI compliance issues with potential commercial manipulation risks.
