Elon Musk fails to appear at Paris legal summons over alleged child abuse, deepfakes on X

Elon Musk failed to appear at a summons to meet on Monday with Paris prosecutors, where investigators are looking into allegations of misconduct related to the social media platform X, including the spread of child sexual abuse material and deepfake content.

Musk and Linda Yaccarino — the former CEO of X — were summoned for “voluntary interviews,” while other employees of X were scheduled to be heard as witnesses throughout this week, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

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 had 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.

“These voluntary interviews with the executives are intended to allow them to present their position regarding the facts and, where appropriate, the compliance measures they plan to implement,” prosecutors said. “At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that platform X complies with French law, insofar as it operates within the national territory.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office told The Associated Press that Musk and Yaccarino’s potential no-show on Monday “is not an obstacle for investigations to continue” ahead of the meeting.

In a later statement to the BBC on Monday, the Paris prosecutor’s office said it had “taken note of the absence of the people summoned,” without naming Musk.

When asked for comment earlier on Monday, X pointed the BBC to a post by Musk on the social media platform from February, calling the probe 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 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.

Authorities are looking into alleged “complicity” in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors, sexually explicit deepfakes, denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized group, along with other charges.

X has previously denied any wrongdoing and referred to the allegations as “baseless.”

Following the raid at X’s Paris office in February, the social media platform’s Global Government Affairs team wrote, “French judicial authorities raided X’s Paris office today in connection with a politicized criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms and purported fraudulent data extraction.”

“We are disappointed by this development, but we are not surprised. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office widely publicized the raid — making clear that today’s action was an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice,” the statement said.

X’s Global Government Affairs team accused the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office of “plainly attempting to exert pressure on X’s senior management in the United States by targeting our French entity and employees, who are not the focus of this investigation.”

“The Prosecutor’s Office has ignored the established procedural mechanisms to obtain evidence in compliance with international treaties and X’s rights to defend itself,” the statement continued. “These procedural mechanisms are well known and used on a daily basis by judicial authorities around the world.”

“The allegations underlying today’s raid are baseless and X categorically denies any wrongdoing.”

The team said that X is “committed to defending its fundamental rights and the rights of its users.”

“We will not be intimidated by the actions of French judicial authorities today,” the statement concluded.

French prosecutors alert U.S. authorities

In March, the Paris prosecutor’s office alerted the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — the U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating and overseeing financial markets — 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.

The prosecutor’s office also said this could have been done “ahead of the planned June 2026 stock market listing of the new entity formed by the merger of SpaceX and xAI, at a time when company X was clearly losing momentum.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department told French authorities it wouldn’t help facilitate their efforts to investigate Musk’s X. The outlet reported that the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs accused Paris prosecutors of inappropriately using its justice system to interfere with an American business.

In a two-page letter sent last week, the Justice Department also said that France’s requests for U.S. assistance “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.”

Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, shared the article in a post and wrote, “The Justice Department just told French law enforcement authorities it wouldn’t facilitate their efforts to investigate X. @TheJusticeDept 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, “Indeed, this needs to stop.”

X under scrutiny in other countries

X has also been under scrutiny from the European Union. The 27-nation bloc opened an investigation in January after Grok allegedly published “manipulated sexually explicit images, including content that may amount to child sexual abuse material.”

Brussels has already fined X 120 million euros for shortcomings under the union’s sweeping digital regulations, including blue checkmarks that broke rules on “deceptive design practices” and risked exposing users to scams and manipulation.

In January, Canada’s privacy watchdog expanded its investigation into X and announced the investigation would grow to include xAI, following reports that Grok is being used to create explicit images of individuals without their consent.

“The investigations will examine whether X Corp. and xAI are meeting their obligations under Canada’s federal private-sector 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 use of personal information without consent to create deepfakes, including intimate images, is a growing phenomenon that poses serious risks to individuals’ fundamental right to privacy. I have decided to expand my investigation to address this issue given its importance and the potential serious harms that it may cause to Canadians,” said Philippe Dufresne, Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Ashley St. Clair sues Elon Musk’s xAI over AI-deepfake images

Musk’s xAI was sued by Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Musk’s son Romulus, in January after she alleged Grok created explicit sexual images of her without her consent.

St. Clair filed the lawsuit in New York on Jan. 15. It alleges she had notified xAI that users were creating illicit deepfake photos of her “in sexually explicit poses.”

She requested that the Grok service be prevented from creating non-consensual images, according to the legal documents obtained by NBC News and viewed by Global News.

“xAI’s product Grok, a generative artificial intelligence (“AI”) chatbot, uses AI to undress, humiliate, and sexually exploit victims — creating genuine looking, altered deep fake content of children covered in semen, women stripped naked and in sexually explicit bikinis, and Holocaust survivors in bikinis in front of concentration camps,” the lawsuit reads.

St. Clair claims that Grok “created and disseminated altered, deepfake content” of her on the social media platform X “as a child stripped down to a string bikini, and as an adult in sexually explicit poses.”

She reported the images to X and requested their removal, according to the lawsuit. But instead, she claims that Grok “proceeded to place warnings for ‘nudity, sexual content, violence, gore, or hateful symbols'” on St. Clair’s responses to Grok and deboosted her account while simultaneously keeping the images up.”

The lawsuit states that as a result of the images, St. Clair has “suffered, and continues to suffer, serious personal injuries, including but not limited to emotional distress, psychological trauma, loss of privacy, reputational harm, and fear of continued dissemination.”

St. Clair is asking for xAI to stop using her image and is seeking monetary damages, including lawyer’s fees incurred.

After St. Clair filed her lawsuit in New York, it was transferred to the federal Southern District of New York after a request from xAI, according to court documents.

“xAI files this Notice of Removal solely for the purpose of removing the instant Action and does not waive, and specifically reserves, any and all defenses, arguments, and affirmative matters,” the notice of removal reads.

The company then sued St. Clair in federal court in Texas, claiming she violated xAI’s terms of service, and requested damages of more than $75,000.

It said that any claims against xAI must be filed in either federal court in the Northern District of Texas or in state courts in Tarrant County, Texas, because that is where the company is based.

— With files from Global News’ Rachel Goodman and The Associated Press