Now France’s J3 cybercrime unit probes Musk’s X over alleged algorithmic bias

Paris — French prosecutors said on Friday they have opened an investigation into Elon Musk’s X social media platform over alleged algorithmic bias.

News of the probe comes just days before a major AI summit in Paris, which is due to host global leaders including US vice-president JD Vance and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as Alphabet and Microsoft executives.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said it launched the investigation after being contacted on January 12 by a legislator alleging that biased algorithms in X were likely to have distorted the operation of an automated data processing system.

X, formerly known as Twitter, did not respond to a request for comment.

The investigation underlines growing global wariness over the power of X, the name given to Twitter by tech billionaire Musk after he bought the social media network.

Musk has used X to personally support right-wing parties and causes in countries including Germany and Britain, leading to concerns about undue foreign interference.

French centrist legislator Eric Bothorel, posting on X, said he had written to the J3 cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutors’ office with his concerns that X was using biased algorithms, a report by Franceinfo said.

“Prosecutors and specialised assistants from the cybercrime unit are analysing it and carrying out initial technical checks,” the Paris public prosecutor’s office said in an email to Reuters.

“I sent a letter to the cyber J3 prosecutor’s office on this subject on January 12,” Bothorel wrote on X.

The J3 unit of the Paris prosecutors’ office led last year’s probe of Telegram boss Pavel Durov, who was arrested after landing at a Paris airport. Durov, who is out on bail, denies the allegations, but Telegram has since said it is co-operating more closely with police to remove illegal content.

The J3 unit has shown a willingness to use novel and aggressive laws to target the owners of major platforms.

X was blocked for over a month in Brazil last year for failing to stop the spread of misinformation, before eventually complying with a Supreme Court order that allowed for the network to be reestablished.

Reuters