Paris cybercrime unit searches Elon Musk's X office in France

Paris prosecutors raid Elon Musk’s X offices as part of probe into allegedly biased algorithms, with Europol and French cybercrime units assisting.

Reuters

3 February 2026 at 10:12:12

Paris cybercrime unit searches Elon Musk's X office in France

FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk attends the U.S.-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 19, 2025.

Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

The Paris prosecutor's office said a search was underway at the French offices of Elon Musk's social media network X on Tuesday as part of an investigation opened in January 2025.

The prosecutor's cybercrime unit was conducting the searches, it added in a post on X, with Europol also involved and the support of the French police's own cybercrime unit.

There was no immediate comment from X.

The Paris prosecutor's office said it launched the investigation after being contacted by a lawmaker alleging that biased algorithms in X were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system.

The prosecutor's office also said it was leaving the X social media platform and would communicate on LinkedIn and Instagram from now on. LinkedIn belongs to Microsoft MSFT.O and Instagram to Meta META.O.

-Reporting by Inti Landauro and Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Alex Richardson/Reuters