A French prosecutor has opened a criminal investigation into X and Elon Musk, on accusations of “creating bias in France’s democratic debate.”
This comes after Musk’s AI company, xAi, deleted multiple posts from its chatbot Grok that included antisemitic comments. Among them, Grok called itself “MechaHitler” and insinuated that the Jewish people were controlling Hollywood.
On Thursday, French parliamentarian Thierry Sother and EU representative Pierre Jouvet asked Arcom, France’s digital content regulator, to look into Grok’s behavior.
“Since the July 4th update, Grok has substantially changed behaviors leading it to comment antisemitic ideas, to praise Hitler and even to support Le Pen,” said Sother to French media Libération.
X has not immediate responded to requests for comment.
X and Elon Musk have been on French and European radars since January when Eric Bothorel, a French parliamentarian, raised concerns over X’s use of personal data, a biased algorithm and the reduction of diversity in posts.
He also denounced Elon Musk’s personal interference within the platform, calling a “a true danger and a threat for our democracies,” according to Libération.
On top of this, the European Union has been investigating X for two years on accusations it breached the EU’s platform regulation law, the Digital Service Act. The E.U. fined Apple and Meta $800 million in April over antitrust rules.
