French justice awaits Elon Musk firmly. Will the American multi-billionaire – boss of Tesla, Space X and X (ex-Twitter) – respond to the summons from the Paris prosecutor’s office?
The American multi-billionaire is expected on Monday, in a free hearing, as part of the investigation carried out by the French justice system into his social network X (formerly Twitter). Whether Elon Musk honors this summons or not (the most likely option), the investigation will continue, warned the prosecution.
What are the investigations focused on?
The investigations relate in particular to suspicions of complicity in “possession of images” of a “child pornography” or “contestation of crimes against humanity”. At the beginning of February, the courts carried out a search of the premises of X and summoned the 54-year-old man to come and explain himself, as part of an investigation into the alleged abuses of his social network.
Elon Musk as well as the former general director of X, Linda Yaccarino, are targeted “in their capacity as de facto and legal manager of the Company X is the target of a preliminary investigation, part of reports in early 2025 denouncing bias in its algorithms.
The investigation was then expanded, after other reports, notably on the functioning of Grok, the artificial intelligence tool integrated into the social network For the Paris prosecutor, free hearings “of managers must allow them to explain their position on the facts and, where applicable, the compliance measures envisaged”.
“The conduct of this investigation is at this stage part of a constructive approach”, indicated the magistrate, “with the objective of ultimately guaranteeing the conformity of platform X with French laws”. Employees of X are also summoned from Monday to Thursday “to be heard as witnesses”.
What involvement of the American authorities?
In a publication, the social network He assured that he would “not allow himself to be intimidated”. The social network says that “the Paris prosecutor’s office is clearly trying to exert pressure on the general management of X in the United States by targeting (its) French entity.”
French justice also sent a report to the American authorities. On Friday, they took a position in support of X, according to a letter addressed to the French, whose Wall Street Journal was echoed on Saturday.
The Office of International Affairs of the American Department of Justice believes that the Paris investigation goes against the First Amendment of the Federal Constitution on freedom of expression. The requests to US authorities “constitute an attempt to involve the United States in a politically sensitive criminal proceeding aimed at […] to improperly regulate” the activities of X, according to the letter cited by the daily.
What does Elon Musk say?
The boss of X France, Laurent Buanec, assured on January 22, 2025 that […] offer hateful content.
Tension rose further in mid-March when the Paris prosecutor’s office reported to the American authorities a possible “artificial valuation” of companies X and xAI by the richest man in the world, in the wake of the controversy sparked by “deepfakes” of a sexual nature generated by Grok. At the time, Elon Musk, on X and in French in the text, was scathing: “They are mentally retarded. »
