French prosecutors note Musk absence in widening X and Grok probe

French prosecutors said they had “taken note of the absence of the people summoned” after Elon Musk did not show up for a voluntary interview in Paris, a conspicuous silence in a case that now reaches from alleged algorithmic bias to Grok-generated hate speech and sexualized deepfakes.

The Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit opened the investigation in January 2025 after complaints, including one from a French lawmaker, accused X of biased algorithms that may have distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. Authorities later broadened the case after Grok allegedly produced Holocaust-denial content and sexually explicit deepfakes, turning a platform oversight dispute into a criminal inquiry with far wider consequences.

Prosecutors have said they are examining possible charges that include complicity in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group. French police searched X’s French offices in Paris in February 2026 with Europol involved in the operation, and prosecutors said Musk and former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino were summoned as the de facto and de jure managers of X at the time of the events under review. Yaccarino led X from May 2023 until July 2025.

The prosecutor’s office said the investigation is meant to ensure X complies with French law while operating in France, and officials have said the case will continue even if the summoned executives do not appear. That stance gives the no-show legal significance beyond public relations: French authorities are signaling that a voluntary interview is only one part of a broader criminal file that now includes corporate oversight, AI safety and the duties of global platforms in a national jurisdiction.

X has denied wrongdoing and called the French raid “politicised” and “an abusive judicial act.” Musk has called the case a “political attack” and later said it was “politically motivated.” The dispute has also drawn in Washington, after CNBC reported that the U.S. Justice Department would not assist the French probe, with Reuters saying the department’s letter argued France was seeking to regulate a U.S. public square in a way that runs against the First Amendment.

The backlash has intensified as outside researchers have linked Grok to alarming output, including an estimate from the Center for Countering Digital Hate that it generated about 3 million sexualized images in 11 days in January 2026, including roughly 23,000 that appeared to depict children. For European regulators, the case is becoming another test of whether powerful tech companies can treat borders as optional while their products circulate harm at scale.