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Elon Musk summoned as France raids X's Paris office in algorithm abuse case

“Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino,” the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Updated on: Feb 3, 2026, 16:53:07 IST
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The French authorities have summoned Elon Musk to appear before them for answering questions related to the probe into his social media platform X, the Paris prosecutor's office said on Tuesday.

Musk has been summoned to answer questions as part of a probe into his social media platform X. (REUTERS)
Musk has been summoned to answer questions as part of a probe into his social media platform X. (REUTERS)

“Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” AFP cited the prosecutor's office as saying.

Yaccarino had resigned as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of X in July last year, after a couple of years at the company.

The police are probing lawmakers' allegations that platform X hosted and was used to distribute child sexual abuse material, as well as posts denying crimes against humanity, according to Bloomberg.

Authorities search X offices in Paris

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau's office said that apart from Musk and Yaccarino, other X employees will also be summoned to speak, Bloomberg reported. The social media platform has also been accused of fraudulently extracting and falsifying data.

Beccuau said that at this stage, the investigation is “part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that X complies with French law.”

The investigation into social media platform X's algorithms was launched by the Paris prosecutor last year, with the probe focusing on alleged bias and manipulation.

As part of the investigation, prosecutors request access to X's recommendation engine and data on user posts, with the social media platform denying all allegations and refusing to comply to what it described as a “politically-motivated criminal investigation”, Bloomberg reported.

X's chatbot Grok – an artificial intelligence chatbot which has run into trouble with authorities in several countries – also came under the scanner after users generated undressed images of children and non-consenting women, posting them on X. XAI has, since then, disabled the ability for people to use Grok to create sexualized images of real people.

 
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