French prosecutors investigating Elon Musk and his social media platform X have summoned the billionaire to France to face preliminary charges. The investigation is now officially a criminal investigation, according to French officials.
France opened an investigation in 2025 to investigate whether
According to the financial world Diarymusk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino have been asked to travel to France to face preliminary charges. As the Journal explains, once preliminary charges are filed in France, an investigating judge begins a process that can last months and does not necessarily mean that a trial will be held. It is quite possible that the case will eventually be dismissed.
French authorities are investigating Musk’s “complicity” in creating images of child sexual abuse and sexually explicit deepfakes, according to the Associated Press. Grok also allegedly spread misinformation in French, including the claim that Auschwitz was not an extermination camp during the Holocaust, but was used for “Zyklon B disinfection against typhus.”
Musk bought Twitter in late 2022 and changed the name to X. The billionaire made many changes to the platform, removing safeguards that allowed people to know when an account was verified and inviting far-right figures who had previously been banned to return. Musk welcomed users like white supremacist Nick Fuentes and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, among many others.
Musk also altered the site in ways that turned it into a hotbed of far-right extremism and pro-Trump propaganda in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election. Musk donated more than $290 million to Republicans in the 2024 cycle and even ran a program that paid some voters in swing states up to $1 million to sign a “petition,” a move that was very clearly an attempt to pay people to vote. by Trump.
Musk, currently worth $803 billion, was rewarded with a job overseeing the dismantling of federal government agencies under the auspices of DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. In the end, some 300,000 government workers lost their jobs and USAID was illegally dissolved. Cuts to global aid are estimated to cause 23 million deaths by 2030, according to analysis by The Lancet Global Health.
Last month, the US Department of Justice told French authorities that the US would not assist in any investigation into Musk and X, which was not a surprise given the billionaire oligarch’s ties to the Trump regime.
“This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public space for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution,” the April letter said, according to the Wall Street Journal.
X did not immediately respond to emailed questions Thursday about whether Musk planned to travel to France. Gizmodo will update this article if we receive a response.
