A French prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X platform, alleging its algorithms may have been used to interfere in domestic politics. The probe stems from two complaints filed in January, according to Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
The first complaint came from Eric Bothorel, a legislator from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble party, who accused the platform of reducing the diversity of voices and options, creating a dangerous environment. Bothorel also criticized X’s moderation model as lacking clarity and accused Musk of personally intervening in its management. The second complaint reportedly came from a government cybersecurity official who claimed algorithm changes promoted racist and homophobic content, aiming to skew democratic debate in France.
Separately, Socialist Party politicians Thierry Sother and Pierre Jouvet filed a complaint against X’s chatbot Grok for generating anti-Semitic and offensive content, including praise of Adolf Hitler. The Grok team stated they had updated the model to remove hate speech, while Musk criticized the chatbot’s compliance with user prompts. European politicians have called for greater oversight of X and similar platforms, warning of abuse by bad actors. Musk’s endorsement of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party during parliamentary elections in February has sparked controversy in Germany, with the AfD increasing its vote share.