Elon Musk has been summoned to face a voluntary interview in Paris on Monday, April 20, in a criminal investigation into whether his X platform distributed child sexual abuse material. It remains unclear if he will appear. The US Justice Department earlier told French prosecutors on Friday, April 18, that it will not assist the investigation.
French authorities are investigating suspected complicity in possessing child sexual abuse material, denial of crimes against humanity, and automated system manipulation. This is a criminal probe, not a civil enforcement action, coming just six weeks before Musk takes SpaceX public in the largest offering in history.
Louis Eriakha
How Grok Generated 23,000 Images of Children
X's Grok chatbot created three million sexualised images over 11 days in January, including 23,000 that appeared to show children, according to the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. Users claimed to have typed simple prompts such as "remove her clothes," and Grok complied. France opened the investigation in January 2025 after a lawmaker and a senior official reported that X's algorithm appeared to be designed to interfere in French politics. Prosecutors expanded the probe after discovering the Grok images.
SpaceX filed confidential IPO paperwork with the SEC on April 1 and is targeting a June listing at a $1.75 trillion valuation, raising roughly $75 billion. SpaceX merged with Musk's AI company xAI in February at a $1.25 trillion valuation. The combined entity would be the largest public offering in history.
Why the DOJ Blocked France
"This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution," the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs said in a two-page letter dated Friday, April 18, according to The Wall Street Journal, which reviewed the letter. The letter accuses France of misusing its courts to regulate an American company. Without DOJ cooperation, France cannot compel Musk to testify in the US or easily get documents from American servers.
Musk posted on X in response to the Journal's report: "Indeed, this needs to stop."
"We hope the Parisian authorities will now come to their senses, recognise that there is no wrongdoing here, and terminate their baseless investigation," an xAI spokesperson told the Journal. French prosecutors raided X's Paris offices in February. At the time, X called it an abusive judicial act based on political motivations.
“The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office widely publicised the raid—making clear that today’s action was an abusive act of law enforcement theatre designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice,” X said at the time.
French judicial authorities raided X’s Paris office today in connection with a politicized criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms and purported fraudulent data extraction. We are disappointed by this development, but we are not surprised. The Paris Public…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) February 3, 2026
"Whether Musk or other X employees show up for voluntary interviews would not be an obstacle to the continuation of the investigation," the Paris prosecutor's office said in a statement Saturday.
Britain's Information Commissioner's Office opened its own investigation into X and xAI in February over data protection violations. The EU opened a parallel probe in late January. X employees were summoned as witnesses in Paris this week.
Wall Street must now decide whether to write a $75 billion check to a company facing three government investigations over images of children.
Damilare Odedina
