French Police Raid X Offices as UK Probes Grok AI Over Deepfake Concerns

The Paris prosecutor's cyber-crime unit conducted a raid on X’s French offices on Tuesday. The investigation involves several severe allegations, including complicity in the distribution of child pornography, unlawful data extraction, and the infringement of image rights through sexual deepfakes.

Notably, the prosecutor’s office has summoned both Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for hearings scheduled for April. X has previously dismissed these actions as "politically motivated" attacks on free speech.

Simultaneously, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a fresh probe into Musk’s AI tool, Grok. This investigation focuses on the chatbot’s potential to generate harmful sexualized images and videos using personal data without consent. While the media regulator Ofcom stated it currently lacks specific powers over chatbots to investigate image creation, the ICO is stepping in to examine how personal data is processed to generate such content.

The European Commission is also in contact with French authorities following its own investigation into xAI (Grok’s parent company).

Amidst these developments, Telegram founder Pavel Durov—who faced similar legal challenges in France last year—publicly criticized the raid, accusing the French government of persecuting platforms that offer freedom of speech.