French Authorities have carried a raid at the office of the social media platform, X, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, following the growing investigation of how the company operates in Europe.

The raid is linked to an ongoing investigation which began about a year ago, which involves the allegation that X may have misused its algorithms and also mishandled user data. Musk and X’s former chief executive, Linda Yaccarino, have been asked to appear before the French investigators, including several other staff members of the company, as part of the investigation. 

French prosecutors also stated that the investigation has now been widening following complaints about Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Musk’s company, xAI, which is integrated with X, may have been involved in the creation and spreading of sexual explicit images, which includes content involving minors and non-consensual deepfake images. 

At the same time, the UK have opened their own investigations concerning the platform. Britain’s data protection agency is looking whether Grok still generate harmful sexual images and how the platform handles personal information. The UK media regulator is also currently assessing whether X has taken enough steps to stop the generation and spread of sexual deepfakes on its platform. 

The European Union has also increased their survey on the platforms. EU officials have also launched a different investigation into whether the platform is allowing illegal content to circulate, following the public backlash of disturbing images allegedly been created by Grok. 

So far, X has not responded to the latest situation. In the past, Elon Musk rejected similar accusations, saying that the investigations are politically motivated. However, the European authorities claimed that their actions are aimed to ensure X follows local laws and protect users. 

The investigations has added to rising tensions between European governments and major US tech companies over online safety and free speech.