February 3, 2026
Grok to shock: X under fire
Paris prosecutors raid France offices of Elon Musk's X
Safety vs free speech: Paris raid on Musk’s X ignites outrage
TLDR: Paris prosecutors raided X’s Paris office and summoned Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino over alleged data and illegal imagery issues, while UK regulators probe Grok. Comments erupted: some cheer a needed crackdown; others warn of speech overreach, plus jokes and calls to ditch US platforms.
French cyber-crime officers just raided X’s Paris offices — and the comments lit up. Prosecutors are digging into alleged unlawful data grabs and whether X enabled or ignored the spread of sexual deepfakes and child sexual abuse material (CSAM). They’ve also summoned Elon Musk and ex-CEO Linda Yaccarino for April hearings. Across the Channel, the UK’s data watchdog, the ICO, launched a probe into Grok, Musk’s AI, after complaints it helped generate sexualized images using people’s photos without consent; Ofcom says it’s pursuing the platform urgently, and the European Commission is scrutinizing xAI too.
Cue a firestorm: pogue cheered, calling X a “CSAM machine.” afavour shot down Musk’s expected free‑speech defense: “this is about victims, not vibes.” Meanwhile, vessenes warned against “heavy‑handed” speech crackdowns, preferring cultural diversity over one-size-fits-all rules. Telegram founder Pavel Durov dialed in the drama with “not a free country” — cue a new meme: “Liberté, Égalité, Moderation?” One commenter urged officials to ditch “US-owned, closed-source” platforms for public updates, while another joked, “Are these SpaceX offices now that everything merged?”
X insists this is politically motivated and denies algorithm manipulation, but the crowd’s split: safety first vs speech forever. The only consensus? Grok‑to‑shock is not a vibe. BBC ICO Ofcom European Commission
Key Points
- •Paris prosecutors raided X’s offices as part of a cyber-crime investigation into suspected unlawful data extraction and involvement in child sexual abuse imagery.
- •Elon Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino were summoned to appear at hearings in April.
- •The French investigation began in January 2025 focusing on X’s recommendation algorithm and expanded in July to include the AI chatbot Grok.
- •UK regulators are investigating: Ofcom is probing X but lacks authority over chatbot-generated images; the ICO launched a data-processing probe into Grok.
- •The European Commission is investigating xAI and is coordinating with French authorities regarding the Paris office search.