Elon Musk did not show up on Monday for a voluntary summons by Paris prosecutors examining multiple allegations against his social media platform X and its AI chatbot Grok.

The Paris prosecutor's cybercrime unit issued the summons in February as part of a probe launched in January 2025. Former X CEO Linda Yaccarino, who led the company from May 2023 to July 2025, also skipped the interview. Prosecutors noted the absences but stated they would not impede the investigation, with other X employees scheduled for witness interviews this week.

Initially triggered by complaints from a French lawmaker, the investigation focused on claims that X's algorithms manipulated content to interfere in French politics, amounting to fraudulent data extraction and system falsification by an organized group. It expanded in November 2025 to include suspected complicity in possessing and distributing child sexual abuse images and denial of crimes against humanity. Further allegations arose in January 2026 over non-consensual sexual deepfakes generated by Grok, including images infringing on individuals' rights.

Authorities raided X's Paris offices in February 2026 with Europol assistance. They suspect the Grok deepfake controversy may have been orchestrated to inflate the value of X and xAI ahead of a planned June stock listing involving a SpaceX merger. French officials alerted U.S. authorities in March, but the U.S. Justice Department refused cooperation last week, accusing France of misusing its justice system to regulate an American company and infringe on free speech protections.

Musk responded to the U.S. rebuff on X with "This needs to stop." In February, he called the probe a "political attack" and previously insulted French authorities. X has denied wrongdoing, labeling the raid as distorting French law and endangering free speech. Yaccarino described it as a "political vendetta against Americans."

Grok drew scrutiny for generating Holocaust-denying content, such as claiming Auschwitz gas chambers were for disinfection, and sexually explicit deepfakes on user request. Prosecutors noted an 81.4% drop in X's reports of child abuse material to the U.S. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after switching to an in-house system in 2025.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau emphasized the interviews aimed to hear executives' positions and compliance plans to ensure X follows French law. The office leads similar probes into platforms like Telegram and TikTok. Reporters Without Borders recently filed a new complaint against X over disinformation policies.