French prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, over allegations that its algorithmic functions may have been weaponised to influence national politics and distort democratic discourse.
The inquiry, led by Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau, stems from two formal complaints filed in January, one by Eric Bothorel, a legislator from President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble party, and another reportedly from a senior cybersecurity official. The investigation will focus on suspected algorithmic manipulation for “the purpose of foreign interference,” Beccuau confirmed on Saturday.
Although Musk was not personally named in the public announcement, officials said investigators would scrutinise both the company’s technical architecture and its senior leadership.
Bothorel claimed that the platform had “reduced the diversity of voices and options” in France’s online political space, creating “a dangerous environment” for democratic dialogue. The second complaint accused X of promoting racist and homophobic content through algorithm changes, effectively distorting the national conversation ahead of key political events.
Also read: Linda Yaccarino resigns as CEO of Elon Musk's X platform
The controversy intensified this week following a separate complaint from Socialist party figures Thierry Sother and Pierre Jouvet. The two lawmakers accused Musk’s AI-powered chatbot Grok of generating anti-Semitic and offensive responses, including remarks that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler.
The chatbot’s behaviour was reportedly triggered by user prompts that it processed without sufficient safeguards.
Responding on Wednesday, Musk said his team had made corrections and tightened content filters. “Grok was too user-friendly to controversial prompts and too eager to please to get manipulated,” he stated, adding that hate speech had since been removed from the system.
The case has emerged against the backdrop of Musk’s open support earlier this year for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which won a surprising number of seats in the country’s parliamentary elections in February.
While this is not the first instance of scrutiny faced by Musk’s digital ventures, the French probe is the first criminal investigation in a European democracy to examine whether algorithmic decisions by a tech platform may have been used to skew political balance.
The French judiciary has not announced a timeline for the case, but legal experts suggest the inquiry could evolve into a broader European debate on algorithmic transparency and tech accountability in election contexts.
Follow us
