French prosecutors were waiting to see if tech billionaire Elon Musk would respond to a summons to appear before them on Monday for questioning as part of an investigation into X and its AI chatbot Grok in a probe related to fraudulent data extraction.
It was not clear if Musk would attend the hearing and there was no sign of him at the main Paris courthouse. The date had been set in February when the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit raided the French office of social media platform X, which is owned by Musk.
The probe, which has further strained relations between the U.S. and Europe over Big Tech and free speech, was later expanded to include suspected complicity in the distribution of child pornography and the creation of sexual deepfakes by Grok.
While attendance at Monday’s hearing is mandatory, the authorities at this stage cannot compel Musk, the world’s richest man, to appear. Reuters could not reach representatives for Musk ahead of the summons. In July, Musk denied the initial accusations and said French prosecutors were launching a “politically-motivated criminal investigation”. The Paris prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
X has come under scrutiny from regulators and governments in several countries since Musk’s takeover of the platform, with authorities examining issues including content moderation, data practices and compliance with local laws.
