Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Monday denied accusations from French prosecutors of alleged data tampering and fraud, calling them politically motivated.
X was responding to an announcement earlier this month from the Paris prosecutor’s office, which said it was opening an investigation into the two alleged offenses.
Both offenses involved an “automated data processing system,” according to prosecutors, who provided scant details of the alleged wrongdoing.
The platform said French authorities were carrying out a “politically-motivated criminal investigation into X over the alleged manipulation of its algorithm and alleged ‘fraudulent data extraction’.”
“X categorically denies these allegations,” it said in a post from its Global Government Affairs account.
The prosecutor’s office has said it acted 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.
Prosecutors said the two people alleged suspected use of X’s algorithm for the “purposes of foreign interference,” without providing details.
The platform said it “remains in the dark” about the the specific allegations. “However, based on what we know so far, X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech.”
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