The Paris prosecutor’s office’s anti-cybercrime section opened an investigation on July 9 targeting the social network X and its managers, the Paris prosecutor announced on Friday. They are suspected of having biased the platform’s algorithm for the purposes of foreign interference
An investigation has been entrusted to the national gendarmerie against the X network, as a legal entity, and against the “natural persons” who manage it, indicates Laure Beccuau in a press release. The name of its owner, Elon Musk, multi-billionaire, also boss of Tesla, is not mentioned.
Two reports
This comes after two reports received on January 12, which “reported the supposed use of the X algorithm (formerly Twitter) for the purposes of foreign interference,” details the public prosecutor.
The first came from the Macronist deputy for Côtes-d’Armor, a specialist in these issues, Eric Bothorel. He alerted the prosecution to “the recent changes to X’s algorithm, as well as the apparent interference in its management since its acquisition by Elon Musk” in 2022.
“Threat to our democracies”
He highlighted a “reduction in the diversity of voices and options”, a platform which moves away from an objective of “guaranteeing a safe and respectful environment for all”, a “lack of clarity as to the criteria which led to algorithm changes and moderation decisions”, as well as “personal interventions by Elon Musk in the management of his platform”, i.e. “a real danger and a threat to our democracies”.
According to information from Le Canard chainé in February, the second report came from a cybersecurity director in the public service who had for his part reported “a major modification in the algorithm used by the X platform which today offers a lot of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+, homophobic political content and which therefore aims to bias the democratic debate in France”.
The public prosecutor’s office, which confirmed in early February that it was studying these reports, indicated in its press release on Friday that it had opened this procedure “on the basis of verifications, contributions from French researchers and elements provided by various public institutions.”
Various offenses
The investigation was entrusted to the General Directorate of the National Gendarmerie, and relates “in particular” to the following offenses: alteration of the operation of an automated data processing system in an organized gang, as well as fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system in an organized gang.
The boss of
At the European level too
At the European level, the European Commission opened a “formal investigation” targeting X in December 2023.
The network was formally indicted in July 2024 for several alleged offenses.
For each of them, and for lack of compliance, the Commission could impose a fine on Elon Musk of up to 6% of the annual global turnover of all the companies he controls, or several billion euros.
