France summons Musk for questioning as X deepfake backlash grows

Paris:French authorities summoned billionaire Elon Musk to a voluntary interview and searched the local offices of his social media network X on Tue...

Paris: French authorities summoned billionaire Elon Musk to a "voluntary interview" and searched the local offices of his social media network X on Tuesday in a probe into alleged political interference and sexual deepfakes, prosecutors said.

The operation comes as both Britain and the European Union have opened separate probes into the creation of sexualised deepfakes of women and children by Musk's AI chatbot Grok.

The French investigation, which began in January 2025 over allegations X's algorithm was used to interfere in French politics, now also includes a probe into Grok's dissemination of Holocaust denials and sexual deepfakes.

"Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr Elon Musk and Ms Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events," the Paris prosecutor's office said.

Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year after two years at the helm of the company.