By Sam Schechner
PARIS--French prosecutors are summoning Elon Musk to the French capital again -- this time to face preliminary criminal charges in a sprawling investigation into his social-media platform, X.
The new summons, just weeks after Musk didn't show up for a voluntary interview with French prosecutors, escalates a trans-Atlantic feud over France's handling of its long-running probe of X.
The U.S. Justice Department last month declined to cooperate with the French investigation and called it a "politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform."
That came after a February raid on X's Paris offices by French law enforcement and prosecutors seeking evidence in their probe.
The investigation, which began in 2025 with allegations of a biased algorithm, has since grown to include charges of violating the secrecy of correspondence, dissemination of child pornography and the creation of sexualized deepfake images by its Grok chatbot.
Prosecutors said Thursday that the probe was now an official criminal investigation. They added that Musk is being invited, along with X's former Chief Executive Linda Yaccarino, to respond to preliminary charges against them. If either Musk or Yaccarino fails to appear, they can be slapped with the preliminary criminal charges in their absence, the prosecutors said.
In the French legal system, once preliminary charges have been filed, an investigating magistrate conducts an investigation that can last months or even years before deciding whether to send the accused to trial or drop the case. Preliminary charges are generally delivered in person.
X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment but previously called the raid an "abusive act of law enforcement theater."
French prosecutors said Thursday that the goal of their investigation is to push platforms like X to comply with French law when operating in France.
Write to Sam Schechner at Sam.Schechner@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 07, 2026 14:51 ET (18:51 GMT)
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