French prosecutors are seeking charges against Elon Musk and his social media platform X over the presence of child sexual abuse images, deepfakes, disinformation, and complicity in denying crimes against humanity by the platform's artificial intelligence system, Grok.
Investigation Details
The Paris public prosecutor's office announced Wednesday that it has opened an investigation into X on multiple charges. These include complicity in possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images, unlawfully collecting personal data without ensuring data security, disseminating non-consensual images or other content, and denial of crimes against humanity by Grok.
X and its parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. The investigation follows less than three weeks after Musk and Linda Yaccarino, former CEO of X, were summoned for voluntary interviews regarding the allegations. They failed to appear, but French authorities stated this would not impede the investigation.
Background of the Case
Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at X's French premises as part of a probe initiated in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office. Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X during the period under investigation. Yaccarino served as CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.
The investigation was launched following reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system. It expanded after Grok generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime under French law, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.
Prosecutors are examining alleged complicity in possessing and disseminating sexual abuse images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity, and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, among other charges.
Grok's Controversial Output
Grok, developed by xAI and available through X, sparked global outrage earlier this year after it produced a stream of sexualized nonconsensual deepfake images in response to user requests. The chatbot also wrote a widely shared post in French claiming that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus rather than for mass murder—language long associated with Holocaust denial.
In subsequent posts on X, Grok reversed itself, acknowledged the earlier reply was incorrect, and stated it had been deleted. It pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than one million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.
International Implications
In March, the Paris prosecutor's office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Prosecutors suggested that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of X and xAI, potentially constituting criminal offenses.
