X’s Paris HQ raided by French prosecutors

Paris prosecutors announced {that a} search was underway at workplaces belong to Elon Musk’s X platform as a part of an ongoing investigation first launched in January 2025. The raid is being carried out by Paris and nationwide cybercrime items, with help from Interpol, based on put up from Paris prosecutors on X. Officers from X have but to touch upon the matter.

On the similar time, Paris prosecutors issued summonses to Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino for “voluntary interviews” on April 20, 2026 in Paris. The prosecutors additionally introduced they’d now not use X and would solely talk on LinkedIn and Instagram going ahead.

The searches are a part of an investigation that has been ongoing for practically a 12 months over the functioning of X’s algorithms which are “prone to have distorted the operation of an automatic knowledge processing system,” investigators said at the time. These adjustments reportedly gave better prominence to sure political content material (particularly from Musk) with out consumer data — one thing that might be against the law below French legal guidelines.

An investigation was officially launched in July, with Paris prosecutors including a further cost: “Fraudulent extraction of knowledge from an automatic knowledge processing system by an organized group.” Extra not too long ago, it additionally consists of “complicity within the possession of photographs of minors representing a pedo-pornographic character,” as a consequence of photographs created by Grok between December 25, 2025 and January 1, 2026.

In July, X stated in an announcement that the probe “egregiously undermines X’s elementary proper to due course of and threatens our customers’ rights to privateness and free speech. [French officials have] accused X of manipulating its algorithm for ‘international interference’ functions, an allegation which is totally false.”

Replace, Feb 3 2026, 4:00pm ET: X posted a lengthly statement on its World Authorities Affairs account, calling the allegations “baseless” and stating the corporate “categorically denies any wrongdoing.” The corporate went on to explain the raid as “an abusive act of regulation enforcement theater designed to attain illegitimate political aims relatively than advance reliable regulation enforcement objectives.”