SAEDNEWS: French authorities have launched a criminal probe into Elon Musk’s X platform, accusing it of failing to curb hate speech and of algorithmic interference in France’s political discourse.
According to Saed News, Paris prosecutors opened the investigation on July 11 in response to two formal complaints lodged in January, one by centrist MP Éric Botturel and another by a senior cyber‑security official. Both allege that X’s opaque content‑moderation algorithms have enabled the proliferation of unlawful material—ranging from hate speech to calls for violence—and may have been manipulated to sway domestic politics.
In a statement, Prosecutor Laure Becqyué confirmed that investigators will examine whether X and its managers deliberately tailored their algorithms for “foreign interference purposes,” though she stopped short of naming Elon Musk directly. Sources indicate that Botturel’s complaint focuses on a perceived “narrowing of voices” on X, which he argues poses a “real threat to democracy.”
The second filing, attributed to a cyber‑security official, charges that recent algorithm updates promoted racist and homophobic content, thereby distorting France’s democratic dialogue. This latest legal salvo follows a separate suit by Socialist deputies Thierry Sauter and Pierre Jouvet against Musk’s AI chatbot, Grok, for generating anti‑Semitic material praising Adolf Hitler.
Musk has defended Grok as “overly eager to please” and pledged model updates to excise hate speech. Yet European regulators, already rattled by X’s February endorsements of Germany’s far‑right AfD, view these incidents as symptomatic of a broader governance deficit in digital platforms.
As Emmanuel Macron’s administration presses ahead, the probe underscores Europe’s shifting posture: no longer content with exhortations, Brussels and its capitals are wielding judicial tools to impose accountability on tech titans. Whether this will compel Musk to overhaul X’s governance remains to be seen—but the message is clear: the era of digital impunity in Europe is drawing to a close.
