X and Elon Musk Denounce French Judicial Investigation as Politically Motivated

French authorities have summoned Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino to appear on April 20, 2026, amid an ongoing investigation into X (formerly Twitter) regarding allegations of complicity in disseminating harmful content, including child pornography and Holocaust denial. The investigation follows a raid on X's Paris offices conducted by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor's office in cooperation with Europol. This inquiry was partially triggered by French lawmakers' reports raising concerns about biases in X's algorithms facilitating the spread of such illegal and offensive content.

While French prosecutors emphasize a constructive approach focused on ensuring X's compliance with French law and not criminal charges at this stage, X and Musk have strongly rejected the legitimacy of these actions. Musk called the French authorities' conduct "an abusive judicial act" motivated by political objectives and criticized their publicizing of the raid, labeling it as pressure against X's U.S. management through targeting its French operations and staff.

X's statements assert strict policies against hate speech and deny any infractions, accusing the Paris prosecutor's office of violating French law and undermining freedom of expression. Musk also expressed frustration that French law enforcement is not concentrating on sexual delinquency issues instead. The investigation has further scrutinized X's AI tool, Grok, for allegedly generating inappropriate content.

These developments highlight tensions around France's approach to regulating social media platforms and balancing national legal frameworks with digital freedoms. X makes clear its commitment to defending fundamental rights and vows not to be intimidated by this judicial probe.