The U.S. Department of Justice reportedly declined to cooperate with French authorities’ probe into Elon Musk‘s X on Friday following a raid of the social media platform’s Paris office earlier this year.
U.S. Rejects French Cooperation Request
The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, in a letter dated Friday, dismissed French authorities’ request for assistance, accusing them of misusing their legal system to interfere with an American business, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.
The letter, reviewed by the Journal, stated that the investigation was an attempt to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions, which is contrary to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The French requests for U.S. assistance were described as an effort to involve the U.S. in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating the business activities of the social media platform.
The investigation into X began in January 2025, following complaints by a lawmaker and another official alleging that X’s content-selection algorithm, which they saw as being skewed toward Musk’s views, amounted to foreign interference in France.
The DOJ did not immediately respond to Benzinga‘s request for comment.
Responding to the report, Musk posted on X, “Indeed, this needs to stop.”
X Faces Wider European Regulatory Scrutiny
Musk’s platform has been in the news earlier this year over allegations tied to Grok, X’s AI chatbot, and its nonconsensual image-editing features, prompting regulatory scrutiny, including investigations in Ireland.
Separately, X was fined €120 million in December by the European Union over transparency and verification issues, amid ongoing regulatory and legal disputes involving the social media platform across multiple jurisdictions.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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