The Daily Populous Saturday May 9th, 2026 day edition
Authored by arstechnica.com and submitted by Plastic_Ninja_9014

French prosecutors yesterday opened a criminal investigation into Elon Musk and X, escalating a probe into sexual images of minors and other alleged illegal content on Musk’s social network.

The action came three months after French law enforcement authorities raided X’s Paris office and summoned Musk for questioning. Prosecutors wanted to interview Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino in April, but they did not appear.

The earlier request to interview Musk and Yaccarino was described as voluntary. Authorities are now seeking to compel them to appear for questioning with the threat of criminal charges. In addition to sexual images of minors, the investigation involves Grok’s dissemination of Holocaust-denial claims and sexually explicit deepfakes.

“Prosecutors said Thursday that the probe was now an official criminal investigation,” The Wall Street Journal wrote. Musk and Yaccarino were invited “to respond to preliminary charges against them. If either Musk or Yaccarino fails to appear, they can be slapped with the preliminary criminal charges in their absence, the prosecutors said.”

The office of Paris public prosecutor Laure Beccuau announced the move in a press release yesterday. The office said it asked investigating judges to charge X Corp., xAI, Musk, and Yaccarino “by summoning them for this purpose and to gather their comments, or, in the event of non-compliance, by issuing a warrant equivalent to an indictment,” Le Monde reported.

The investigation “aims to uphold the law and to protect individuals who have been victims of criminal offenses, both online and in real life,” the prosecutor’s office said. X previously “refused to comply with a court order to hand over its algorithm,” according to Le Monde.

michaeldot_02 on May 9th, 2026 at 04:32 UTC »

As a European, I’m glad that Europe is finally waking up to the fact that being dictated by American conglomerates is a bad idea.

Exact_Patience_9767 on May 8th, 2026 at 21:02 UTC »

A soon to be trillionaire, like him believes, he's above the law, and does not need to answer to any authority. An example needs to be made of him.

Complete-Sort1617 on May 8th, 2026 at 20:41 UTC »

Make it so he can’t go to France