France is launching a criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X over alleged instances of algorithm manipulation for foreign interference purposes. The national gendarmerie will be tasked with the investigation, the Paris prosecutor’s office announced.
In a statement, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that the investigation is looking at X as a legal entity as well as unnamed individuals.
Within the investigation’s scope, she highlighted the two following potential offenses: “alteration of the operation” and “fraudulent extraction of data” of an automated data processing system “by an organized group.”
Beccuau added that the move followed “verifications, contributions from French researchers and elements brought by various public institutions.”
In February, her office had opened an initial probe into X following two reports made the cybercrime section of the Paris prosecutor’s office over the social network’s alleged use algorithm manipulation for foreign interference purposes.
These reports were made by an unnamed senior official from a French public institution, which French journalists described as a cybersecurity manager, and by a member of parliament, Éric Bothorel.
In a statement, Bothorel welcomed news of the investigation moving forward, which he said “comes at a time when the new Grok update seems to be tipping over to the dark side of the force, with a predominance of questionable, even nauseating, content.”
On July 9, X took the automated account for its AI chatbot offline after it spent Tuesday afternoon pushing antisemitic narratives, which weren’t a first. The European Commission is “in touch” with X over this very topic it said; but Bothorel’s concern is broader.
“I was convinced that information bias, which is particularly strong on the X platform, was serving Elon Musk’s political opinions, and that this could only be achieved through algorithmic manipulation,” the elected official stated.
Bothorel said he filed his report as an MP, but also as “a citizen who does not want Moscow, Silicon Valley, or anyone else to distort our democratic conversations.” He praised “the work of an efficient prosecutor’s office, particularly its cyber section, which will likely need to be strengthened at a time when cyber threats continue to increase.”
As Paris prosecutor, Beccuau has coordinated prosecutions related to the hacking forum BreachForums. She is also overseeing the ongoing judicial investigation into Telegram and its CEO Pavel Durov, who was arrested for alleged facilitation of criminal activity on the platform. Durov has since then obtained court approval to leave France for Dubai, but the investigation continues.
