‘Political attack’: Musk slams France over raid of X amid deepfakes probe

Billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday (Feb 3) slammed French authorities for raiding the offices of his social media network X, calling it a “political attack” amid a probe into alleged political interference and sexual deepfakes. This comes after French prosecutors summoned Elon Musk for a voluntary questioning and carried out searches at the Paris offices of X as part of an expanding criminal investigation into alleged political interference and the spread of illegal content on the platform.

“This is a political attack,” the billionaire wrote on social media, adding in a separate X post that authorities in France should instead focus on targeting sex criminals.

The search came as the European Union and Britain launched investigations into the sexualised deepfakes of women and children created by Musk’s AI chatbot Grok.

French authorities have also alleged X’s algorithm was used to interfere in French politics. The X’s offices in Paris were searched as part of the investigation that started in January 2025. It now also includes a probe into the Grok AI tool’s dissemination of Holocaust denials and sexual deepfakes.

X calls raid ‘baseless’

In response to the actions taken by the French authorities, X’s Global Government Affairs said in a statement, “The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office widely publicized the raid—making clear that today’s action was an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice.”

It further added, “The allegations underlying today’s raid are baseless and X categorically denies any wrongdoing. Today’s staged raid reinforces our conviction that this investigation distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech. X is committed to defending its fundamental rights and the rights of its users. We will not be intimidated by the actions of French judicial authorities today.”