Elon Musk failed to appear before French prosecutors in Paris on Monday for a scheduled voluntary interview as part of a wide-ranging judicial probe into his social media platform X, in a no-show that has added fresh tension to an already strained relationship between Washington and European regulators.
The Paris Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to AFP that both Musk and former X chief executive Linda Yaccarino were absent, without naming them directly. The office said it had “taken note of the absence of the first people summoned,” adding that “their presence or absence was not an obstacle to the continuation of the investigation.” Hearings are scheduled to continue through the week with X employees based in France.
The Paris Prosecutor publicly announced in February that it had summoned Musk and Yaccarino for voluntary interviews as part of a cybercrime probe covering alleged irregularities around X’s algorithms, Holocaust denial content, and the dissemination of sexually explicit deepfakes.
The investigation, which began in January 2025, centres on whether X’s algorithms distorted the treatment of content on the platform and whether the company improperly extracted user data following complaints from French lawmakers and advocacy groups. The probe was later expanded to include suspected complicity in the distribution of child sexual abuse material and the creation of sexual deepfakes through X’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.
The non-appearance was matched by a significant diplomatic development. The Wall Street Journal reported that the United States Department of Justice sent a letter to Paris prosecutors declining to cooperate with the investigation, stating that the probe sought “to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” The Paris prosecutor said it had no knowledge of such a letter and affirmed that “the French constitution guarantees the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary.”
In February, the Paris prosecutor’s cybercrime unit raided X’s French offices. Musk called the raid an “abusive judicial act” and described the investigation as a “politically-motivated criminal investigation,” a characterisation X has maintained. Yaccarino stepped down as X’s chief executive in July 2025 after two years in the role.
Telegram founder Pavel Durov, himself facing charges in France, posted on X in support of Musk, writing that “France is losing legitimacy as it weaponizes criminal investigations to suppress free speech and privacy.”
The French cybercrime unit leading the X probe previously arrested Durov in 2024 over charges including complicity in organised crime carried out on the messaging app, charges his lawyer has described as “absurd.” Prosecutors have the option to place Musk in police custody if they determine his absence constitutes an obstruction of the inquiry, though enforcing such a measure against a United States-based individual would present significant practical and diplomatic hurdles.
