Elon Musk's X platform investigated in France for alleged data tampering and fraud

FILE - An "X" sign rests atop the company headquarters, formerly known as Twitter, in downtown San Francisco, on Friday, July 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

PARIS (AP) 鈥 French prosecutors have launched a police investigation into alleged data tampering and fraud involving X, Elon Musk鈥檚 social media platform.

The Paris prosecutor's office, in a statement Friday, announced the opening of the investigation, and said that a branch of the French gendarmerie is conducting the inquiry.

The investigation is looking into two alleged offenses 鈥渋n particular鈥 鈥 organized tampering with the functioning of an automated data processing system, and organized fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system, the statement said.

It didn't give details of the alleged wrongdoing. It said that the investigation is targeting both the platform and people, without naming them or saying what role they might have within X.

The prosecutor's office said that it was acting on information that two people provided in January to its cybercrimes unit. One of them is a member of parliament, and the other is a senior official in a French government institution. It didn't identify them or the institution.

It said the two people alleged the suspected use of X鈥檚 algorithm for the 鈥減urposes of foreign interference.鈥 It didn't detail the alleged interference or how the algorithm was allegedly used.

The prosecutor鈥檚 office said that it decided this week to open the police investigation, after conducting its own "verifications鈥 and having received additional information from French researchers and 鈥渧arious public institutions.鈥

The Associated Press has emailed X's press office, seeking comment.

___

Kelvin Chan contributed to this report from London.

The 春色直播 Press. All rights reserved.

More Science Stories

Sign Up to Newsletters

Get the latest from 春色直播News in your inbox. Select the emails you're interested in below.