French police have carried out a surprise raid on the offices of social media platform X and summoned billionaire Elon Musk along with senior executives as part of an investigation into alleged privacy violations and the spread of harmful online content.

According to Reuters, authorities searched X’s French office over suspicions that the platform misused algorithms and unlawfully extracted user data for unauthorized purposes. Prosecutors have issued summonses to Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino, X’s former CEO, for a hearing scheduled on April 20. Several employees at the company’s French branch have also been called in as witnesses to assist with data audits and clarify internal operating procedures.

The probe initially focused on alleged algorithm-related violations following a complaint filed by French lawmaker Éric Bothorel. However, officials said the scope of the investigation has since widened after multiple complaints involving Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk’s company xAI and integrated into X.

French authorities are examining seven allegations against X. The most serious include suspected complicity in hosting and distributing child sexual abuse material, violations of personal image rights through deepfake content, allowing Grok to spread genocide denial narratives, and engaging in unlawful data extraction.

While xAI has said it has implemented technical safeguards to limit Grok’s image-generation capabilities, European regulators argue these measures remain insufficient. Grok’s ability to generate sensitive imagery has sparked public outrage in France in recent weeks.

In response, Elon Musk has strongly criticized the French authorities on his personal account, while X accused the Paris Prosecutor’s Office of bypassing international legal cooperation mechanisms and infringing on the company’s right to a fair defense during evidence collection.

France is not alone in its scrutiny. UK data protection authorities are also investigating Grok, and the European Union has launched a separate probe into X under the Digital Services Act (DSA).