DOJ refuses to assist French authorities in felony probe of X

The US Department of Justice is siding with X, because the social media platform owned by Elon Musk navigates a felony investigation unfolding in France. As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the Justice Division characterised the French probe as “an effort to entangle the USA in a politically charged felony continuing geared toward wrongfully regulating by means of prosecution the enterprise actions of a social media platform.”

France launched its investigation into X in July, accusing the platform of manipulating its algorithm and “fraudulent information extraction.” Months later, French authorities raided X’s office in Paris and issued summonses to Musk and Linda Yaccarino, the previous CEO of X, to look for interviews on April 20 as a part of the probe. In keeping with WSJ, French officers are additionally investigating X for different prices, together with disseminating CSAM and Holocaust denial. Nonetheless, France’s newest transfer to ask the Division of Justice for help has been stonewalled.

“This investigation seeks to make use of the felony authorized system in France to manage a public sq. for the free expression of concepts and opinions in a fashion opposite to the First Modification of the USA Structure,” the DOJ wrote in letter, as seen by WSJ.

An xAI official instructed WSJ that it is “grateful to the Justice Division for rejecting this effort by a prosecutor in Paris to compel our CEO and several other workers to sit down for interviews.” The corporate spokesperson additionally mentioned there was “no wrongdoing” and that it was a “baseless investigation.”