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On 3 February 2026, the headquarters of X (formerly Twitter) in France were searched in an operation conducted by the cybercrime division of the Paris public prosecutor’s office
The investigation
It all began on 12 January 2025, with a report sent to the Paris public prosecutor’s office by Renaissance MP Éric Bothorel, who raised concerns about ‘changes to X’s algorithm, as well as apparent interference in its management following its acquisition by Elon Musk’ in 2022. At the same time, another report was filed by a cybersecurity director working in the public sector, who denounced changes to X’s algorithm that allegedly led to an over-representation of “nauseating political content.”
The investigation then begins, expanding further and further thanks to the addition of new elements, such as the unlawful theft of computer data and the illegal management of an online platform by an organised group.
Risks to minors, from psychological damage to child pornography
Then, in November 2025, the specialised J3 section of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office began investigating cases of ‘complicity in the possession of child pornography images’ and ‘complicity in the organised distribution, offering or making available’ of such content. In January 2026, many Internet users began to complain about the dissemination on social networks, via the Grok account – accessible to anyone – of fake nude photos (deepnudes) generated by the tool without the consent of the people targeted, mainly women and also minors. The report by the NGO AI Forensics, published at that time, analysed 20,000 images generated by Grok between 25 December 2025 and 1 January 2016, establishing that more than half depicted scantily clad individuals. We wrote about it here.
Now, following the search, the prosecutor’s office has confirmed that it has sent Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino a summons to appear for questioning in Paris on 20 April. Employees of Platform X have also been summoned to appear as witnesses during the week of 20 to 24 April 2026.
Social media ban for under-15s
Meanwhile, after six months of hearings and 31,000 testimonies, the French parliamentary inquiry has initiated the legislative process for a bill (2107) prohibiting the use of such platforms by minors under the age of 15 in France, following a study carried out by the Commission of Inquiry into the psychological effects of TikTok on minors, established by the National Assembly on 13 March 2025 to investigate reports from civil society regarding the possible side effects of social network use on young people’s mental health.
And it has been reported in recent days that Spain is following suit by planning to ban children under 16.
Last weekend saw the explosion of Moltbook, a new social network where AI publishes and humans watch: a network of AI agents that interact with each other, establishing rules, hierarchies and codes of conduct. Beyond all the conjecture that has emerged so far, one question that may not yet have been addressed concerns how the new social network could be used in the sphere of child pornography, given that traditional networks, which currently employ people to moderate content, would find it difficult to detect such content on Moltbook.
The DSA fine and the unpleasant attitude of the USA
Europe also took a stand against Musk’s platform through the Digital Services Act (DSA): the legislation requires large platforms to declare the number of people employed for content moderation, and the third transparency report, produced at the end of October by Musk’s social network, showed that the platform was cutting back on moderation. So in December, X was fined by the European Commission for failing to comply with the DSA, due to misleading ‘blue tick’ graphics, a lack of transparency in its advertising archive and failure to provide researchers with access to public data. The first penalty imposed by the DSA since its entry into force was levied on one of Trump’s closest associates: €120 million. The US House hearings held up to that point to curb European regulations and the US president’s previous threats, such as the famous one posted on his Truth social media platform, had been to no avail: ‘As president of the United States, I will stand up to nations that attack our amazing American tech companies,’ he wrote, explicitly referring to the DSA and the DMA. He added: ‘I am warning all nations with digital taxes, legislation, rules and regulations that, if these discriminatory measures are not withdrawn, as President of the United States, I will impose additional substantial taxes on these nations’ exports to the US and restrict exports of our protected technology and chips to them’.
The power of freedom of expression in France. The other Musk, Durov
When freedom of expression exceeds its limits and becomes complicit, the Paris public prosecutor’s office springs into action. To date, it has also been monitoring the investigations of another champion of freedom of expression, Durov. The CEO of another platform, Telegram, was arrested in August 2024, as soon as he got off the plane at Paris airport – we covered the Durov case in this investigation in its updates. Some of the 12 charges against Durov are similar to those now levelled at Musk: six relate to charges of complicity, ranging from ‘operating an online platform to facilitate an illegal transaction within an organised group’ to complicity in the possession, distribution and sharing of child pornography. In addition, there are charges of complicity in trafficking programmes to carry out cyber attacks. Durov has rejected the charges, arguing that he is not responsible for the behaviour of users on the platform and calling the case ‘absurd’. Now, even though he has been allowed to leave France temporarily, he is still under investigation.
In this fragmented scenario, amid judicial investigations, geopolitical clashes and increasingly opaque platforms, the central question remains unresolved: who really governs the digital space? This is the response of the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, who has stated that he is engaged in a ‘battle for the soul’ of the Internet, and that ‘We can fix the Internet… It’s not too late’, despite the fact that the commercialisation of the network has been ‘optimised for malice’. Tim Berners-Lee’s words sound more like a warning than a hope: repairing the Internet is still possible, but only if freedom is not confused with the absence of responsibility. Because when the algorithm becomes power, neutrality ceases to exist. (photo by Jordan Bracco on Unsplash)
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