Social media platform X’s office in France was raided by Paris prosecutors and Europol on Tuesday under a criminal probe alleging the increased spread of hate speech content and circulation of sexualized content of women and children, among other things.
The raid is part of an expanded probe initiated in January last year. The investigation also focuses on alleged offenses like chatbot Grok’s Holocaust denial content and manipulation of automated data systems.
“At this stage, the conduct of the investigation is based on a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French law, as it operates on the national territory,” Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.
The prosecutor’s office said it was shuttering its account on Elon Musk’s social media platform and would provide further updates on LinkedIn and Instagram.
France has issued a voluntary summons for Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino to appear and answer questions about the investigation in April.
Last month, the European Commission launched an investigation into xAI, which developed the Grok chatbot, for its ability to create sexualized deepfakes of women and minors nonconsensually, in violation of the bloc’s Digital Services Act. The UK’s Ofcom also launched a similar probe into Grok.
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