Elon Musk failed to attend a voluntary interview with French prosecutors on Monday, as part of an investigation into his social media platform X and AI chatbot Grok. The billionaire, who had previously called the French authorities involved “retards” in a French-language post on X, was summoned in February alongside then-X CEO Linda Yaccarino as “de facto and de jure managers” of the platform.
French prosecutors stated they “took note of the absence of the first people summoned” and emphasised that the absence would not hinder the investigation. The probe, launched in January 2025, initially focused on allegations that X’s algorithm interfered in French politics, but was later expanded to include dissemination of Holocaust denial material and sexual deepfakes generated by Grok.
In February, French authorities searched X’s Paris offices, a move the company criticised as “politicised” and an “abusive judicial act”. Musk labelled the summons a “political attack”. Yaccarino resigned as X CEO in July 2025 after two years in the role.
The investigation covers several suspected criminal offences, including complicity in possessing child sexual abuse material and denial of crimes against humanity. X has denied any wrongdoing. Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov, himself under French investigation, echoed X’s complaints, accusing President Macron’s government of “weaponising criminal investigations to suppress free speech and privacy”.
The French probe coincides with a broader backlash against Grok, after it emerged that users could generate sexualised images of women and children using simple text prompts. The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported that Grok generated an estimated 3 million sexualised images, including 23,000 depicting children, in 11 days in January.
Separately, Britain’s data regulator launched investigations into X and xAI in February over concerns about Grok’s generation of sexualised deepfakes. The EU also opened an investigation into X over the same issue in January.
