Musk Snubs Paris Prosecutors in Grok Child Sexual Images Investigation as US DOJ Refuses to Assist
April 20, 2026 - 8:22 pm
Elon Musk failed to appear for a voluntary interview with Paris prosecutors investigating Grok’s generation of an estimated 23,000 sexualised images of children and 3 million sexualised images overall over an 11-day period. The US Department of Justice refused to assist the French probe on April 18th, citing concerns that it would infringe upon free speech.
The Paris prosecutor’s office had summoned Musk and other X executives for questioning in connection with five suspected criminal offenses, including:
- Complicity in possessing and spreading pornographic images of minors
- Distribution of sexually explicit deepfakes
- Denial of crimes against humanity
- Manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group
- Fraudulent data extraction
This follows a previous raid on X's Paris offices in February, which Musk has described as a "political attack." The French prosecutor’s office countered that "the French constitution guarantees the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary."
What sparked the investigation?
It began in January 2025 with complaints about X's algorithms being biased and interfering in French politics. It was later expanded to include the above-mentioned criminal charges, all stemming from Grok’s ability to generate sexual images from real women and girls’ photos without their consent.