There is one thing on which French media and analysts agree: the American billionaire Elon Musk is not expected to travel to Paris today, where he has been summoned by the head of France’s cybercrime unit for a “voluntary interview.”

This is part of a preliminary investigation launched in France in January 2025 against the social media platform X and the Grok artificial intelligence software, both of which he owns.

His response to the summons is not mandatory at this stage.

However, French Justice could later escalate pressure, potentially up to the issuance of an international arrest warrant.

This is especially true since experts from France’s National Cyber Security Unit have surprisingly hinted, through leaks to the press, that they have “well-founded suspicions” (sic) that Elon Musk, by manipulating the algorithm of his social media platform, has committed the following offences: illegal use of users’ sensitive personal data for targeted advertising, influencing public discourse in France, denial of crimes against humanity, complicity in the possession and distribution of child pornography, violation of privacy, and more.

Moreover, the manipulation of a social media platform’s algorithm constitutes “tampering with the operation” of a computer system, which is criminally punishable under French law.

He called the judges “intellectually retarded”

As reported by French media outlets, after fifteen months of investigation, judges and police — assisted by various artificial intelligence experts and “information provided by various public bodies” — decided to request that X provide its algorithm so they could determine whether and to what extent French legislation is being violated.

The company, whose headquarters are in Dublin, Ireland, refused to provide the algorithm, obviously denouncing the investigation as “politically motivated” and based on “abuse of French law.”

On February 3, French investigators raided the French offices of the X platform, which denounced the move as a “tactic of pressure.”

Musk himself called the judges investigating his platform “intellectually retarded.”

Regarding the U.S. Department of Justice, it informed French prosecutors that it refuses to provide assistance. In its reply letter dated April 17 (published the next day in the Wall Street Journal), it described the case as a “politically motivated criminal investigation aimed at the illegal regulation of the activities of a social media platform.”

Analysts do not rule out American retaliation

According to French analysts, the French side’s strategy bears some resemblance to its confrontation with the Russian-born French citizen Pavel Durov, the head of the Telegram messaging service.

Durov was arrested, placed in custody, and charged with ignoring judicial requests, after which he began complying with the investigators’ demands.

However, since Musk is not a French citizen, the French side is treading on uncharted waters, analysts note.

They do not rule out the possibility of American retaliation in the form of sanctions against the French judges at the center of the investigation — similar to the sanctions imposed by the U.S. government at the end of December 2025 against the former French Commissioner Thierry Breton, in connection with the key European legislative measures on large digital platforms that he promoted during his time in Brussels.