X declines to cooperate with French probe

Elon Musk's X on Monday accused French prosecutors of launching a "politically-motivated criminal investigation" that threatens its users' free speech, denying all allegations against it and saying it would not cooperate with the probe.

Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors stepped up a preliminary probe into the social media platform for suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction. Police can now conduct searches, wiretaps and surveillance against Musk and X executives, or summon, or even arrest them to testify.

"Based on what we know so far, X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech," X posted on its Global Government Affairs account. As a result, X said it had refused Paris prosecutors' request for "access to X's recommendation algorithm and real-time data ...as we have a legal right to do."