Elon Musk fails to appear in Paris legal summons over alleged child abuse, deepfakes on X – National
Elon Musk failed to appear at a summons to meet Monday with Paris prosecutors, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse and fake content.
Musk and Linda Yaccarino — X’s former CEO — have been called for “voluntary interviews,” while other X employees are scheduled to testify as witnesses throughout the week, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.
Musk was summoned after a search that took place in February at X’s French premises as part of an investigation opened in January 2025 by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office. Musk and Yaccarino were invited in their capacities as managers of X during the events under investigation. Yaccarino was CEO from May 2023 until July 2025.
“These voluntary interviews with management are intended to allow them to present their views on the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At the moment, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the final aim of ensuring that stage X is in line with French law, as it operates within the national territory.”
The Paris prosecutor’s office told the Associated Press that Musk and Yaccarino’s absence on Monday was “not an obstacle to further investigation” before the meeting.
In a statement later sent to the BBC on Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said it had “noticed the absence of the people called,” without naming Musk.
Asked for comment earlier Monday, X pointed the BBC to Musk’s social media posts from February, calling the investigation a “political attack.”
Global News has reached out to the Paris prosecutor’s office for further comment.
What is being investigated?
French authorities opened their investigation after reports from a French prosecutor that X-biased algorithms may have distorted the performance of an automated data processing system. It increased after the AI program, Grok, produced posts that allegedly denied the Holocaust (a crime in France) and spread deepfakes that depicted sex.
The authorities are looking into the “problem” accused of holding and distributing child pornography, confidential material that exposes sex, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of the data processing system as part of an organized group, as well as other crimes.
UX has denied wrongdoing and called the allegations “baseless.”
After the raid on X’s Paris office in February, the social media team Global Government Affairs wrote, “French authorities raided X’s Paris office today in connection with a politically motivated criminal investigation into the use of algorithms and fraudulent data mining.”
“We are disappointed by this incident, but we are not surprised. The Paris public prosecutor’s office has widely publicized this raid – making it clear that today’s action is a violent act of theater designed to achieve illegal political goals instead of advancing the legitimate goals of law enforcement based on the administration of justice and impartiality,” the statement said.
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X’s Global Government Affairs team accused the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office of “obviously trying to put pressure on X’s top management in the United States by targeting our French company and employees, who are not the focus of this investigation.”
“The prosecutor’s office ignored established methods of obtaining evidence in accordance with international agreements and X’s right to self-defense,” the statement continued. “These procedures are well known and used daily by law enforcement authorities around the world.”
“Today’s undercover allegations are baseless and X categorically denies any wrongdoing.”
The team said that X is “committed to protecting its fundamental rights and the rights of its users.”
“We will not be intimidated by the actions of the judicial authorities in France today,” the statement concluded.
French prosecutors alerted US authorities
In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office notified the US Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) – the US government agency responsible for regulating and supervising the financial markets – suggesting “that the controversy surrounding the graphic sex created by Grok may have been deliberately organized to increase the illegality of potential companies and crimes,” prosecutors said.
The prosecutor’s office also said that this could have happened “before the June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity created by the merger of SpaceX and xAI, at a time when company X is clearly running out of power.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the Department of Justice has told French authorities that it will not help in their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The outlet reported that the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs has accused Paris prosecutors of improperly using its justice system to interfere with American business.
In a two-page letter sent last week, the Justice Department also said that France’s requests for US assistance “constitute an attempt to implicate the United States in a politically motivated case aimed at unfairly regulating and prosecuting the activities of social media businesses.”
Katie Miller, wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, shared the article in a post and wrote, “The Department of Justice recently told French law enforcement authorities that it will not assist their efforts to investigate X. @TheJusticeDept has accused France of abusing its criminal justice system to target an American company and censor free speech – in clear violation of the First Amendment.”
Musk quoted Miller’s post on X, writing, “Absolutely, this has to stop.”
X under international surveillance
UX is also monitored by the European Union. The 27-nation bloc opened an investigation in January after Grok published “sexually suggestive images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse.”
Brussels has already fined X 120 million euros for mistakes under the union’s sweeping digital rules, including blue checkmarks that violate rules on “deceptive design practices” and risk exposing users to scams and fraud.
In January, privacy watchdog Canada expanded its investigation into X and announced that the investigation would expand to include xAI, following reports that Grok was being used to create pornographic images of people without their consent.
“The investigation will examine whether X Corp. and xAI meet their obligations under Canada’s federal privacy law, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA),” according to a news release from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
“The unauthorized use of personal information to create deepfakes, including intimate photos, is a growing phenomenon that poses a serious threat to individuals’ fundamental rights to privacy. I have decided to expand my investigation to address this issue because of its importance and the serious harm it could cause to Canadians,” said Philippe Dufresne, Canada’s Privacy Commissioner.
Ashley St. Clair sues Elon Musk’s xAI for AI-deepfake photos
Musk’s xAI was sued by Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Musk’s son Romulus, in January after Grok created pornographic images of her without her consent.
St. Clair filed a lawsuit in New York on Jan. 15. Alleges that he notified xAI that users were creating illegal intimate photos of him with “sexually explicit images.”
He requested that the Grok service be blocked from creating objectionable images, according to official documents obtained by NBC News and viewed by Global News.
xAI’s product Grok, an artificial intelligence (“AI”) chatbot it produces, uses AI to strip, humiliate, and sexually exploit victims — creating realistic-looking, altered content with deep fake content of children covered in semen, women stripping naked and sexually graphic bikinis, and Holocaust front camps in bikinis,” the Holocaust law read.
St. Clair says Grok “created and disseminated altered, false content” of her on the social media platform X “as a child stripping down to a string bikini, and as an adult in sexually suggestive situations.”
(LR): Ashley St. Clair says Elon Musk has only met his son three times.
@stclairashley / X / Getty Images
She reported the images to X and asked that they be removed, according to the lawsuit. But instead, he says Grok “continued to place warnings of ‘nudity, sexual content, violence, gore, or hateful symbols'” in St. John’s responses. Clair on Grok and opened his account at the same time keeping the pictures up.
The case shows that because of these images, St.
St. Clair is asking xAI to stop using her image and is seeking monetary damages, including attorney’s fees.
After St. Clair filed his lawsuit in New York, which was transferred to the federal Southern District of New York after a request from xAI, according to court documents.
“xAI is submitting this Notice of Removal solely for the purpose of removing the instant Action and does not waive, and specifically waives, any defenses, arguments, and affirmative issues,” the removal notice reads.
The company then sued St. Clair in federal court in Texas, claiming it violated xAI’s terms of service, and asking for more than $75,000 in damages.
It said any claims against xAI should be filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas or in district courts in Tarrant County, Texas, because that’s where the company is based.
– With files from Global News by Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press
