France opens probe into Musk’s X over algorithm

 

France opens probe into Musk’s X over algorithm

 

Investigation is over allegations the social media company manipulated its algorithm, Paris public prosecutor’s office says.

 

February 8, 2025 9:36 am CET

By Victor Goury-Laffont and Émile Marzolf

https://www.politico.eu/article/france-opens-probe-into-musks-x-over-algorithm/

 

French investigators have opened a probe into social media platform X over allegations that the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk manipulated its algorithm, the Paris public prosecutor's office said on Friday.

 

In a written response to POLITICO, the prosecutor's office said the investigation followed a "report from a member of parliament dated January 12, 2025, denouncing biased algorithms in the operation of X as likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system," confirming earlier reports by French media.

 

The member of parliament behind the complaint is centrist lawmaker Eric Bothorel.

 

In his letter, seen by POLITICO, Bothorel underlines that "Elon Musk's personal involvement in the management of the platform, but also in several elections concerning European countries, represents a real danger and threat to our democracies."

 

The probe is also based on a separate complaint, initially reported on by French weekly Le Canard enchaîné and obtained by POLITICO, according to which X  "now offers an enormous amount of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+ and homophobic political content, which aims to skew the democratic debate in France."

 

The investigation comes a few days before the AI Summit in Paris, to which Musk has been invited and which U.S. Vice President JD Vance plans to attend.

 

The news came a day after X, formerly known as Twitter, suffered a legal defeat in Germany, where a court ruled on Thursday that the platform must immediately provide researchers with access to data on politically related content ahead of the country’s Feb. 23 election.

 

The German court decision, seen by POLITICO, raises fresh questions about X’s compliance with European regulations ahead of Germany’s federal election and marks one of the first major judicial tests of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

 

Chris Lunday and Eliza Gkritsi contributed to this report.