Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who owns the social media platform X, had his offices in France raided Tuesday as part of an ongoing criminal probe into the potential “dissemination of child pornography,” The Wall Street Journal reported. The investigation stems from the social media platform’s ability to generate user-created deepfake sexualized images.
The criminal probe has also grown to include allegations that the social media platform and its algorithm may constitute “foreign interference" in France’s elections, with French officials reaching out to Musk and requesting he participate in a “voluntary interview,” the Journal reported.
Conducted by the French authorities and the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol, the raid represents the latest clash between Musk and European nations, which have weaker free speech protections.
Musk did not respond to the Journal for comment. He has, however, been active on social media over the weekend in a frantic effort to declare his innocence in the wake of the publication of emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein, emails that in many cases suggested holes in his previous denials about his relationship with the disgraced financier.