On February 4, Elon Musk’s X faced intensified social media scrutiny in Paris, where French authorities raided its offices and summoned Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino, highlighting Europe’s insistence on holding AI driven platforms accountable for harmful content beyond mere political speech.
The raid is a result of a year long investigation of X’s algorithm practice as well as the AI chatbot platform, Grok, regarding complaints of sexual deepfakes, child abuse material, as well as the illegal utilization of data. This has further widened the existing gap between the US and European countries as the former perceives such investigations as threats to free speech.
Europe’s Algorithmic Accountability
French prosecutors have expanded their social media scrutiny to examine whether X’s AI tools, particularly Grok, violated local laws by generating Holocaust denying content and sexual deepfakes of minors and women without consent.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office said the investigation aims “to ensure the compliance of the X platform with French law,” emphasizing accountability over political narratives.
X investigation pushed back, labeling the raid a “political attack” and claiming it “distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech.”
Musk himself wrote to his 220 million followers that the action was a “political attack,” while Yaccarino accused authorities of pursuing “a political vendetta against Americans.” France’s foreign ministry countered, “Investigating child sexual abuse material isn’t controversial… Turning it into political theater is manipulation.”
The UK has followed social media scrutiny suit.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) opened a formal investigation into Grok sexual production of harmful sexualized imagery without consent, raising questions under General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) about data protection and safeguards.
ICO’s executive director for regulatory risk, William Malcolm, said, “Losing control of personal data in this way can cause immediate and significant harm. This is particularly the case where children are involved.”
A Transatlantic Clash of Digital Norms
The social media scrutiny highlights contrasting approaches to platform governance. In Washington, regulators often view European safety rules as suppressing American free speech and economic influence. Across Europe, however, authorities stress that rules like the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the UK’s Online Safety Act aim to make platforms safer, enforcing compliance with their own terms of service, which include the removal of illegal content.
The tensions emerge amid broader European efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. technology. “France and Germany… have been at the vanguard of the EU’s drive for ‘digital sovereignty’: from using national cloud computing services to replacing Microsoft products in government offices.”
EU tech officials, such as Henna Virkkunen, show the point that “dependencies… can be weaponized against us,” a move that represents a strategic shift in which technology policy also shapes national and regional security policy.
Experts note that the X investigation is not just about political speech. “The creation and circulation of illegal AI-generated images raises deeply troubling questions about how people’s data has been used,” said UK privacy lawyer, Iain Wilson.
The X investigation case represents Europe’s broader stance, AI platforms are systems whose outputs can produce tangible harm, and legal responsibility must follow.
However, as lawmakers continue to debate platform oversight both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, Musk’s X investigation case against France reflects the reality that the governance of AI and other technologies is no longer simply a theoretical policy debate.
Rather, it has become an issue of law, sovereignty, and safety for citizens within countries, especially for the European continent, as a message to tech giants that they are not above the law simply because they are global and cross borders, they will face social media scrutiny.
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