French police on Tuesday carried out a search of the Paris offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X.
The Paris prosecutor's office said in a post on social media that the search was related to an investigation that began in January, in collaboration with Europol and France's CyberGend, which is focused on “transnational forms of cyber crime”.
The search is related to allegations concerning the spread of child sexual abuse images and deepfakes on the platform, AP reported. The investigation is reportedly also looking into alleged “complicity” in the denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data-processing system as part of an organised group.
In January, UK regulator Ofcom launched an investigation into X over similar allegations about its AI chatbot Grok. That investigation came amid a trend of using the platform to recreate images of people in a state of undress without the subjects' consent.
On Tuesday afternoon, X responded to the matter, calling it "a politicised criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms and purported fraudulent data extraction".
The company posted a lengthy statement on its Global Government Affairs X account. "The Paris Public Prosecutor's Office is plainly attempting to exert pressure on X’s senior management in the US by targeting our French entity and employees, who are not the focus of this investigation," the statement read.
Since Mr Musk's purchase of X, formerly Twitter, in 2022, his decision to significantly relax content moderation rules has created problems with regulators and law enforcement in several countries.
Last year, a study conducted by researchers at the Berkeley, Los Angeles and Southern California campuses of the University of California concluded that hate speech and spam bots have become a significant area of concern on X since Mr Musk's takeover.
