The legal standoff between France and the digital giants has reached a new milestone. On Tuesday, a raid was carried out on the premises of the social network X, owned by Elon Musk, marking the acceleration of an investigation that began in January 2025.
Social network X offices raided in Paris
On Tuesday, February 3, 2026, the cybercrime division of the Paris public prosecutor’s office carried out a crackdown on the French offices of social network X.
This operation, carried out with the National Cyber Unit of the Gendarmerie (UNCyber) and the support of Europol, is part of an investigation that began in January 2025.
The proceedings were initiated following two reports from a member of parliament and a senior official of a public institution, denouncing possible foreign influence and interference enabled by the platform’s algorithm.
The charges brought are as follows:
- complicity in the possession of images of minors of a child pornographic nature;
- complicity in the distribution, offering or making available, as part of an organized gang, of images of minors of a child pornographic nature;
- violation of the right to one’s image (sexual deepfake);
- denial of crimes against humanity (negationism);
- fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system as part of an organized criminal group;
- falsification of the operation of an automated data processing system as part of an organized criminal group;
- administration of an illegal online platform as part of an organized criminal group.
The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office has also summoned Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X until last July, for a voluntary hearing scheduled for April 20, 2026, in Paris.
The parallel with the Telegram case and Pavel Durov’s reaction
This offensive against X inevitably recalls the precedent set by the Pavel Durov case. The CEO of Telegram, who was indicted in August 2024 and placed under judicial supervision, faces a dozen similar charges, ranging from complicity in drug trafficking to the distribution of child pornography on his app.
France thus appears to be establishing itself as one of the strictest jurisdictions in the world in terms of the criminal liability of social media executives, to the point that some internet users are now denouncing a frontal attack on freedom of expression.
For many, targeting Elon Musk and Pavel Durov is a way to impose less encryption and more control in the name of fighting online crime, a strategy that primarily affects honest users. Criminals, on the other hand, would still have an economic interest in turning to alternative solutions that are more opaque and beyond the reach of the authorities.
Pavel Durov, who appeared before an investigating judge in December 2024, was quick to react to the search of X:
French police are currently raiding the offices of X in Paris. France is the only country in the world that prosecutes all social networks offering a certain degree of freedom to citizens (Telegram, X, TikTok, etc.). Make no mistake: this is not a free country.
