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Topics: Elon Musk, Europe, World News, News, US News, Crime, Technology, Twitter
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Elon Musk, Europe, World News, News, US News, Crime, Technology, Twitter
Prosecutors in France have summoned tech boss Elon Musk to appear at a court hearing later this year, following a raid today on the Paris offices of his social media platform, X.
The billionaire, 54, obtained the site (previously known as Twitter) in October 2022, before going on to introduce an in-site AI chatbot named 'Grok'.
In recent weeks, the artificial intelligence technology has come under fire for allowing criminal users to create sexually explicit images, including child abuse pictures and x-rated celebrity deepfakes.
Following global outrage on this matter, by their own admission, X leaders supposedly 'implemented technological measures to prevent the Grok account from allowing the editing of images of real people in revealing clothing' last month.
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In an announcement on Tuesday (3 Feb), prosecutors revealed that a year-long cyber-crime investigation into potential algorithms abuse by X executives has been underway.
They added that a surge in deepfake controversy cases spurred a raid on Musk's Paris hub, and that investigators plan to look at Grok as a means of violating a person's image rights, amongst committing a series of other crimes.
NBC reports that the latter category includes the platform's allowance of Holocaust denial content, and fraudulent extraction of data from an automated processing system.
According to an EU commission spokesperson, the probe is currently being discussed between legal leaders in both Brussels and Paris.
For context, these conversations are also occurring at a time when tensions between Europe and the States over social media and freedom of speech are at an all-time high, largely led by Musk's former political ally, Donald Trump.
Paris' prosecutor's office explained in a statement: "At this stage, the conduct of this investigation is part of a constructive approach, with the aim of ultimately ensuring that the X platform complies with French laws, insofar as it operates on national territory."
They added that the investigation will not be localised, and that Europol had also become involved.
As a reminder, the European Union last year fined X around $140m for failing to suppress hate speech on the platform. The body also launched a formal investigation into sexual deepfakes on the site in January.
Along with the platform's former CEO Linda Yaccarino, Musk was also called to appear in court in April, 'for the purpose of voluntary interviews'.
These 'should enable them to explain their position on the facts and, where applicable, the compliance measures envisaged', the office added.
After being made aware of the initial investigation back in July, a spokesperson for X slammed prosecutors for launching what they described as a 'politically-motivated criminal investigation'.
They also slammed the probe for 'egregiously [undermining] X's fundamental right to due process and threatens our users’ rights to privacy and free speech', claiming there were 'serious concerns' amongst executives 'about the impartiality, fairness, and political motivations of the investigation'.
Last year's statement continued: "X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech. For these reasons, X has not acceded to the French authorities’ demands, as we have a legal right to do."