French Prosecutors Escalate Probe of Elon Musk and X to Criminal Investigation

French cybercrime authorities have elevated their investigation of Elon Musk and his social network X to a criminal probe, the Paris prosecutor's office announced Thursday — a significant escalation in a case that has already strained relations between French regulators and the United States government.

The investigation, which began in early 2025 at the request of French Member of Parliament Éric Bothorel, centers on two broad sets of allegations: that X engaged in algorithmic manipulation to influence French politics, and that Musk and the company knowingly allowed users of the AI chatbot Grok to generate and distribute Holocaust denials and nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfake images on the platform.

Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino were issued summons to appear before French authorities on April 20. Both declined to appear, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

The February raid on X's Paris office preceded Musk's public dismissal of the inquiry. "Political attack," Musk wrote at the time, characterizing the French investigation in those terms.

Grok is developed by xAI, Musk's artificial intelligence company, which acquired X — a platform Musk already owned — and earlier this year merged with SpaceX, his reusable rocket company. A version of Grok is also integrated into electric vehicles manufactured by Tesla.

France is not acting alone. Other international jurisdictions are also investigating X and Grok, as is the California attorney general's office. Those probes share a common thread: whether Musk and his companies deliberately permitted the creation and spread of deepfake explicit images, including child sexual abuse materials derived from photos or videos of nonconsenting individuals.

The U.S. government has taken a notably adversarial posture toward the French inquiry. In April, the Department of Justice reportedly informed French authorities it would not assist in any investigation of Musk or X, and accused France of inappropriately interfering with an American business.

Representatives for Musk and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Department of Justice and the Paris prosecutor's office were also not immediately available to comment.

The criminal escalation marks a notable turning point in the case, shifting it from a preliminary inquiry into a phase that carries the potential for formal charges. Whether French prosecutors can compel cooperation from Musk or his companies — given the DOJ's refusal to assist and both principals' decisions to skip their April summons — remains a central question as the case moves forward.

The parallel investigations across multiple jurisdictions, combined with domestic scrutiny from California's attorney general, suggest that regulatory pressure on Musk's AI and social media operations is intensifying globally, even as the American federal government has signaled it will not be a cooperative partner in those efforts.

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