Police Search X’s Premises in France as Prosecutors Summon Elon Musk

The move followed a yearlong investigation into X and escalated a wider standoff between European officials and American tech companies over the regulation of social media.

French police searched the premises of X in Paris on Tuesday as prosecutors issued a summons to the social media company’s owner, Elon Musk, raising the stakes in a yearlong investigation that has heightened a wider trans-Atlantic dispute over how to regulate tech companies.

The cybercrime division of the Paris prosecutor’s office is investigating X in relation to seven accusations, including complicity in distributing images of a child of a pornographic nature, producing content that denies crimes against humanity and fraudulent extraction of data, according to a statement on Tuesday from the city’s chief prosecutor, Laure Beccuau.

The search marked an escalation in a broader dispute between European governments and American tech companies — one that has revealed sharp trans-Atlantic differences over the limits of free speech and the question of whether and how to regulate social media platforms. The issue has become particularly tense under the Trump administration, which has spoken and acted increasingly aggressively against Europeans it associates with the push to regulate American tech firms.

The investigation began last January amid concerns over problems with X’s algorithm, the digital process that organizes data on the platform. The case expanded after further accusations that Grok, X’s A.I. chatbot, was spreading Holocaust denial claims and sexual deepfakes, Ms. Beccuau said in the statement.

The prosecutor’s office said in a second statement that X had stopped using a tool meant to restrict child sexual abuse imagery, raising concerns that the platform was “deliberately allowing child pornography content to flourish.” The office added that Grok allowed users to create sexualized versions of existing images without the consent of their subjects. According to the statement, X is also refusing to give French investigators information about subscribers suspected of crimes.

Several people associated with X, including Mr. Musk and Linda Yaccarino, the company’s former chief executive, have been summoned to speak to French authorities, the prosecutors added. The news came a day after Mr. Musk said that he was merging his artificial intelligence company, xAI, with SpaceX, his rocket company.

In a public statement released after the raid, the company said it “categorically denies any wrongdoing” and called the investigation “politicized” and one that “distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech.”

Ms. Yaccarino, in a statement of her own, denounced what she called “a political vendetta against Americans” by the French prosecutors. She added, “To be clear: they are lying.

In a separate development on Tuesday, Britain’s data protection regulator announced it had opened its own investigation into X and xAI over sexually explicit images generated by Grok.

In recent years, the European Union has enacted sweeping regulations over American tech companies, whose platforms pervade modern communication, threatening them with fines unless they police their platforms for illicit content, misinformation and hate speech.

In December, the European Union issued the first fine under its new Digital Services Act, penalizing X for $140 million for violations. Last week, E.U. regulators announced an investigation into X over the spread of sexualized images generated by Grok.

Europeans call their actions a democratic prerogative necessary to protect citizens from sexual and other abuse, rather than restrictions on expression. The Trump administration calls the fines an unfair money grab from American companies and says the regulations are an attack on free speech. The United States has very few legal restrictions on speech, but in France there are criminal penalties for hate speech, Holocaust denial and glorification of terrorism.

French authorities have shown a rare willingness to go after top tech executives, holding them personally liable for the behavior of platform users. In 2023, France made it a crime to provide an online platform that allows organized groups to make illicit transactions.

The French police used the law in 2024 to briefly detain and charge Pavel Durov, the founder of the Telegram messaging app. Mr. Durov has said he should not be held personally responsible for what users post on Telegram. But the company has since tightened restrictions on its platform and taken steps to work more cooperatively with law enforcement agencies. The investigation continues.

On Tuesday, Mr. Durov came to Mr. Musk’s defense. “France is the only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom,” he said on social media. “Don’t be mistaken: this is not a free country.”

Sarah B. Rogers, the State Department’s under secretary for public diplomacy, suggested last month that European financial penalties on U.S. tech companies were a “de facto tax” intended to raise revenue. While it was “undisputed that Europeans get to have their own laws in Europe,” she said the Trump administration was “not willing to give up American freedom of speech in the bargain.”

Éric Bothorel, a centrist French lawmaker who has led calls to investigate X, praised the prosecutors’ moves on Tuesday, saying on social media: “In Europe, and particularly in France, the rule of law means that ‘no one is above the law.’”

Ms. Beccuau, the prosecutor, said that her “investigation is being conducted in a constructive manner, with a focus on collaboration with the individuals and companies involved.” She added that her office’s “ultimate goal is to ensure that X complies with French law.”

The prosecutor’s office posted the statement on X, adding that it would no longer post on the platform.

Ana Castelain, Lizzie Dearden, Kate Conger and Adam Satariano contributed reporting.

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