French investigators have searched the Paris premises of X as part of a criminal inquiry into the platform’s recommender systems, data handling and the use of its artificial intelligence chatbot, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
The operation was carried out by the prosecutor’s cyber-crime unit alongside French police cyber specialists, with support from Europol, the prosecutor said in a statement published on the platform on Tuesday.
The searches relate to an investigation opened in January 2025 after information and complaints were submitted to prosecutors alleging that X’s algorithm could have been used for foreign interference and that there may have been unlawful access to, or extraction of, data from an automated system. French prosecutors have framed the suspected offences as “organised” tampering with an automated data processing system and “organised” fraudulent extraction of data from such a system.
As part of the same case, prosecutors have summoned Elon Musk and the former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino to attend a hearing on 20 April, Reuters reported. Other members of staff have also been called as witnesses.
There was no immediate public response from X to Tuesday’s searches. In previous statements about the French case, the company has rejected allegations of manipulating its algorithm and described the proceedings as politically motivated.
Scope widened to include Grok-related allegations
In its latest update, the prosecutor’s office said the investigation has been widened following complaints about the operation of the chatbot Grok, including alleged offences linked to sexually explicit deepfakes and the circulation of child sexual abuse imagery. Reuters reported that prosecutors are examining suspected complicity in the “detention and diffusion” of images of a child-pornographic nature, as well as alleged violations of image rights through sexually explicit deepfakes, among other potential crimes.
The French inquiry has expanded in stages since it was opened. Reporting in July 2025 described the probe as focusing on possible algorithm manipulation for foreign interference and alleged data-system offences, following referrals made to the prosecutor’s cyber-crime unit earlier that year.
Separate reporting has also linked the case to scrutiny of Holocaust denial and antisemitic content associated with Grok outputs, which French prosecutors said had been added to the scope of an existing investigation.
Prosecutors say goal is compliance with French law
The prosecutor’s office said the searches formed part of an effort to ensure that the platform complies with French law when operating in national territory.
In a further step that underlined the sensitivity of the proceedings, the prosecutor’s office said it would no longer use X for official communications and would instead post updates via LinkedIn and Instagram.
Wider European scrutiny of X
The raid comes against a backdrop of increasing regulatory pressure on major online platforms across Europe, including under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The European Commission opened formal proceedings against X in December 2023 to assess whether the company may have breached DSA obligations in areas such as risk management, content moderation and transparency.
In December 2025, the Commission issued a non-compliance decision and imposed a €120 million fine on X for DSA breaches it said included deceptive design linked to the paid “blue checkmark”, shortcomings in the advertising repository, and failures to provide researchers with access to public data.
More recently, on 25 January 2026, the Commission announced a further formal investigation focused on Grok and the platform’s recommender systems.
French prosecutors’ actions are separate from DSA enforcement, but the two tracks reflect overlapping concerns: how algorithmic systems shape what users see, how platforms manage harmful or illegal content, and whether researchers and authorities can obtain access to information needed for oversight.
For X, the French criminal inquiry adds to a complex set of legal, regulatory and political disputes across multiple jurisdictions. Tuesday’s searches, and the planned April hearing for Musk and Yaccarino, suggest prosecutors intend to test whether the company’s technical systems and internal decisions can be examined through criminal law concepts typically used for computer intrusion and fraud, rather than solely through administrative regulation.
X faces €120m EU fine in first DSA transparency enforcement case
