Elon Musk, X face French charges linked to child sexual abuse images

French authorities have opened a sweeping probe into Elon Musk’s platform X, alleging complicity in distributing child sexual abuse material, spreading deepfakes, and enabling Holocaust denial through its AI system Grok.

Paris: French prosecutors are seeking charges against Elon Musk and his social platform X for child sexual abuse images on the platform, deepfakes, disinformation and complicity in denying crimes against humanity by the platform’s artificial intelligence system, Grok.

The Paris public prosecutor’s office said Wednesday it has opened an investigation into X on charges including complicity in possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images, unlawfully collecting personal data and without ensuring data security, as well as disseminating non-consensual images or other content and denial of crimes against humanity Grok.

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X and its parent company SpaceX did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Thursday.

The investigation comes less than three weeks after Musk and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — were summoned for “voluntary interviews” to discuss the allegations. They did not show up, but French authorities said this wouldn’t hinder the investigation.

Musk was summoned after a search took place in February at the French premises of X as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office.

Musk and Yaccarino have been invited in their capacities as managers of X at the time of the events investigated. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.

French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms on X likely distorted the functioning of an automated data processing system.

It expanded after the AI system, Grok, generated posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust, a crime in France, and spread sexually explicit deepfakes.

It’s looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading sexual abuse images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group, among other charges.

Grok, which was built by xAI and is available through X, sparked global outrage this year after it pumped out a torrent of sexualised nonconsensual deepfake images in response to requests from X users.

Grok also wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

In later posts on X, the chatbot reversed itself and acknowledged that its earlier reply was wrong, saying it had been deleted, and pointed to historical evidence that Zyklon B was used to kill more than 1 million people in Auschwitz gas chambers.

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission, suggesting “that the controversy surrounding sexually explicit deepfakes generated by Grok may have been deliberately orchestrated to artificially boost the value of the companies X and xAI — potentially constituting criminal offenses,” prosecutors said.