French authorities raided Elon Musk's X offices in Paris on February 3, 2026, as part of a year-long investigation into illegal content generated by the Grok chatbot. Prosecutors summoned Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for questioning in April. Separately, UK regulators launched a probe into Grok's creation of non-consensual sexual imagery.
On February 3, 2026, French police conducted a search at X's Paris headquarters, involving the Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit, the national cybercrime unit, and support from Europol. The raid forms part of an investigation launched in early 2025, initially focusing on allegations that X's algorithms distorted an automated data processing system by promoting certain political content without user knowledge. Charges later expanded to include fraudulent data extraction by an organized group and, more recently, complicity in possessing and distributing pornographic images of minors created by Grok between December 25, 2025, and January 1, 2026.
Prosecutors also broadened the probe to cover the generation of sexually explicit deepfakes infringing personal image rights, denial of crimes against humanity such as Holocaust denial, and operation of an illegal online platform. The Paris prosecutor's office described the interviews with Musk and Yaccarino—scheduled voluntarily for the week of April 20, 2026—as a "constructive approach" to ensure X complies with French laws. Yaccarino resigned in July 2025 amid controversies over Grok.
X has denied the allegations, calling them "baseless" and the raid "an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives." In a July 2025 statement, the company argued the probe undermines due process and threatens user privacy and free speech, refusing to provide access to its recommendation algorithm.
Concurrently, the UK's Information Commissioner's Office opened a formal investigation into X regarding Grok's processing of personal data to produce harmful sexualized content, including non-consensual images of individuals and children. The UK's Ofcom is progressing its own probe into Grok's deepfakes with urgency, demanding answers from xAI, Musk's AI firm that developed the chatbot in 2023. This follows global backlash, including temporary bans in Indonesia and Malaysia, a Brazilian ultimatum, and investigations in Canada and India.
