The Paris prosecutor’s office will probably have many difficulties in demonstrating political interference by X, Elon Musk’s social network. After the opening of a criminal investigation and a scathing response of the platform on July 21, accusing the French justice of having a “political agenda”, the Paris prosecutor’s office responded in turn.
With BFMTV, the judicial authority confirms having sent an application to X to audit its algorithm, without the company’s response. On the other hand, he denies any request linked to the personal data of the users.
On July 11, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office published a press release that indicates the opening of a survey aimed at social network X, confident of the National Gendarmerie. The legal entity that constitutes the company X is attacked, but also “natural persons.” If the name Elon Musk is not cited, it seems directly directed.
Algorithm manipulation suspicions
The investigation follows the suspicion of manipulation of the algorithm by X, in particular for interference purposes. Therefore, the social network is accused, under the leadership of Elon Musk’s ideas, to highlight the content of the extreme right, in total opacity. This with the perspective of the municipal elections of 2026, but especially the presidential elections of 2027.
“The investigations are related, in particular, to the crimes of alteration of the operation of an automated processing system in the organized band and the fraudulent extraction of data from an automated processing system in an organized band, the crimes that make 10 years incur in the imprisonment” specifies the Office of the Prosecutor of Paris in BFMTV, this July 21.
Early in the day, X published a press release that evoked an investigation “motivated by political considerations” threatening “freedom of expression.”
“By mail of July 19, 2025, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office officially demanded from the company X the communication of its algorithm (and not access to private data) to be able to be able to proceed to the technical verification of the technical verification of the elements highlighted by the first investigation and the experience” specifications “for its part of its part, even with Tech & CO, adding for the time not to have received an” official response. “
An answer that could never come. As Alexandre Archambault, a lawyer specialized in digital law, reminds us, with Tech & Co, X “does not have the legal obligation to respond favorably to this judicial request, the company that is not in France but in Ireland.” The specialist quotes in particular a judgment of the Court of Cassation that goes in this direction, dating from 2013.
The binding measures could, on the other hand, be decided by the European Commission, which opened an investigation against the platform in 2023, especially for misinformation. An investigation that has not yet led to a sanction.
Source: BFM TV
