Elon Musk has decided to challenge the French justice system in the investigation opened against the social network X for alleged manipulation of its algorithm to promote "foreign interference." "Based on what we know, this investigation is an attempt to distort French laws to serve a political agenda and ultimately restrict freedom of expression," can be read on X's official account for global governance matters.
The response from the social network comes two weeks after the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau publicly announced the opening of an investigation following two complaints filed in January by French deputy Eric Bothorel (affiliated with the Macronist Renaissance party) and a cybersecurity expert from a public institution whose identity has not been revealed.
The cybercrime unit of the Paris Prosecutor's Office, the same unit that ordered the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov a year ago, has taken charge of the investigation for "possible offenses of disrupting data processing operations and organized data extraction."
The investigation targets "the individuals responsible for managing the network," although it does not directly mention Elon Musk. It is unknown if the resignation of Linda Yaccarino as X's CEO, which occurred the day after, could be related to the public announcement. As part of the investigation, French authorities have requested a "technical verification," as well as access for appointed experts to the algorithm following a "security process" and respecting the "confidential nature" of the judicial inquiries. X's officials have vehemently refused to provide access, citing the "political motivations" behind the investigation. "For these reasons, X has not complied with the demands of the French authorities and has the legal right not to do so," can be read on the official account. "This is not a decision we have taken lightly, although in this case the facts speak for themselves," argues Elon Musk's social network, which is also under investigation by the European Commission for alleged non-compliance with the Digital Services Act.
X asserts that the company has been "kept in the dark about the specific accusations" from the French justice system and has dismissed as "completely false" the allegations of algorithm manipulation to facilitate "foreign interference." According to the American news organization, The Politico, X's concerns also stem from the appointment of two experts to collaborate on the investigation, David Chavalarias and Maziyar Panahi, who have a history of bias against the company. Chavalarias is a French academic expert in computer science, and Panahi works for the Complex Systems Institute in Paris.
Chavalarias has been linked to a campaign urging X users, formerly Twitter, to leave the social network when Elon Musk took ownership. Panahi has been identified for his "open hostility" towards the company, something the individual himself denied to The Politico: "My name has been mentioned in error due to having collaborated in the past with Chavalarias."
The first lawsuit against X in France was filed on January 12 by deputy Eric Bothorel, the first to allege "the supposed use of X's algorithm to promote foreign interference." Bothorel included in his complaint a report aiming to demonstrate "the reduction of diversity of voices and options" and "the lack of clarity in criteria caused by changes in the algorithm and moderation decisions." The French deputy attributed this to "Elon Musk's personal intervention on the platform" and warned that what happened represents "a real danger and a threat to our democracies." Bothorel referred to the opinion of jurist Michel Séjean, who claims that algorithm manipulation on social networks may warrant the same sanctions as computer piracy.
A second lawsuit was also filed at the beginning of the year by a cybersecurity expert who warned of "a significant modification in the algorithm used by the X platform, which currently offers a large amount of hateful, racist, homophobic political content aimed at skewing democratic debate in France."