Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of multiple companies, including the social media platform X and electric car manufacturer Tesla, was officially summoned by French prosecutors for a “voluntary interview,” the Paris prosecutor’s office announced on Tuesday, February 3.
Investigators are seeking to question Musk, a former close associate of Donald Trump, on April 20, as well as Linda Yaccarino, the former CEO of X, and several other employees, as part of a sprawling investigation into the social media company. The probe also led to a raid on the company’s French offices by gendarmes on Tuesday, with assistance from Europol. When contacted, both X France and the company’s European communications teams did not respond to Le Monde’s requests for comment.
The multi-faceted investigation not only relates to the social media platform’s internal operations but also its personal data collection practices and the moderation tools it has implemented to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material.
The investigation’s origins
The investigation began with two reports filed on January 12, 2025. They were submitted by MP Eric Bothorel, from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, and a civil servant specializing in cybercrime. The reports condemned changes Musk had made to the way the platform operates, and notably changes to its recommendation algorithms. According to the complainants, the algorithms had been changed to promote certain types of content, which could amount to the offense of “obstructing or distorting the functioning” of an IT system – a charge that is typically cited in hacking cases.
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