French police raid X offices in Paris and summon Musk for interview over child abuse material

French prosecutors raided the Paris offices of the social media platform X on Tuesday as part of a criminal investigation into complaints alleging the platform facilitated the spread of child sexual abuse material and other illegal content.

Prosecutors also said X’s owner Elon Musk has been summoned for a voluntary interview in Paris in April, along with the company’s chief executive, Linda Yaccarino.

In a related development, Britain’s data protection regulator announced it was also opening a formal investigation into X and its chatbot Grok over concerns it may have been used to generate nonconsensual sexualized images, including of children.

Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, had announced launching its own investigation into the same matter last month.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the search on Tuesday was carried out by its cybercrime unit with assistance from France’s National Gendarmerie. It said Europol, the European Union’s police coordination agency, provided analytical and technical support.

The French investigation began last month following multiple complaints accusing X of complicity in the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

At the time, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office told Recorded Future News it had been contacted by two members of France’s parliament reporting “the dissemination of sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’, notably featuring minors, generated by Grok, X's artificial intelligence.”

Prosecutors said the investigation formed part of an ongoing inquiry it was holding into X, covering allegations involving the circulation of sexually explicit deepfake images, denial of crimes against humanity, illegal automated data extraction and operating an illicit online platform.

Company employees have been called to testify as witnesses, the prosecutors said, but no charges have been filed.

Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) — the data protection watchdog — said it is examining whether personal data was processed lawfully and whether adequate safeguards were built into Grok to prevent the creation of harmful manipulated images.

The agency said it is working with other regulators and declined further comment while the investigation is ongoing.

X did not immediately respond to a request for comment.