[ Flash ] X Indicted

No yet, but the Paris Prosecutors Office has passed on the case to investigative judges, which could lead to indictments.

Translation of the above press release, by the Paris Procecutor’s Office.

By means of an introductory indictment process dated 6 May 2026, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office has opened a criminal investigation into the operations of the platform “X,” on the following counts:

• Complicity in the possession of images of a minor of a child pornographic nature, as well as the dissemination, offering, or making available, as part of an organised criminal group, of images of a minor of a pornographic nature

• Collection of personal data by fraudulent, disloyal, or unlawful means

• Processing of personal data without measures ensuring data security

• Fraudulent extraction of data from an automated data processing system as part of an organised criminal group

• Violation of the confidentiality of correspondence sent, transmitted, or received by electronic means

• Falsification of the operation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised criminal group

• Dissemination, via an online public communication service, of a composite image or content generated by algorithmic processing of a sexual nature reproducing the image or words of a non-consenting person

• Administration of an online platform for the purpose of facilitating unlawful transactions, as part of an organised criminal group

• Denial of crimes against humanity, facilitated by the artificial intelligence Grok

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office requests that the investigating judges place the companies X.AI Holdings Corp, X Corp, and X AI, as well as Elon MUSK and Linda YACCARINO, under indictment, by summoning them for that purpose and to record their submissions, or, in the event of non-appearance, by issuing a warrant equivalent to an indictment.

It is once again recalled that these proceedings, initiated on the basis of referrals to the judiciary, are part of an overarching objective of upholding the law and protecting victims of criminal offences, both online and in real life. To this end, it is essential to secure compliance from platforms with the legislation applicable within national territory.

Laure BECCUAU, Prosecutor of the French Republic

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France has never been a state governed by the rule of law. What reigns here is the rule of the state. All that’s explained in the Twitter Files France.

The introduction of an réquisitoire introductif d’instance — a request to open a formal criminal investigation led by three investigative bench judges — provides yet another demonstration of this.

All the more so given that nothing could actually be established during the preliminary inquiry: X’s European servers are located in the Republic of Ireland, and to our knowledge the Garda — the Irish police — has not raided X Corp’s premises at the request of French justice. The name of the game: comply or face escalation. That’s not justice. That’s not due process.

Ms. Beccuau, the head of Paris Prosecutor Office, opened a preliminary inquiry in July 2025 on the basis of two criminal referrals filed on the same day — January 12, 2025 — coinciding with the HelloQuitteX operation, conducted using public resources, namely those of the CNRS. The stench of backroom dealing hangs over this as thickly as grease over a roadside fryer.

HelloQuitX

The first referral, filed under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, came from Éric Bothorel, Member of Parliament for the 5th constituency of Côtes-d’Armor since 2017. A former Socialist Party member, he served as a county councillor for Côtes-d’Armor from 2011 to 2015, and as a municipal opposition councillor in Paimpol from 2014 to 2020.

Eric Bothorel at l’Assemblée nationale (the French House of representatives)

Like many Breton¹ Socialists courted by Richard Ferrand — Macron’s main crony and current President of the Constitutional Council — he rallied to Emmanuel Macron as early as 2016, serving as his party’s spokesman for Côtes-d’Armor, and counted himself among Macron’s supporters in the 2017 presidential election.

Éric Bothorel is, in short, a card-carrying member of what we unkindly call the Breizhbollah² — those insufferable Socialists from Brittany who are socialist in name only, and who have done far more to poison French political life over the past forty years than the Corsican “Gaullists” and Alsatian “Christian Democrats” combined.

Armed with a vocational diploma in business computing, Mr. Bothorel built his career as a sales executive at such death-defying unicorn startups as Infopoint and General Electric. A formidable cyber-warrior, no doubt — because since 2016 (note the year: the same one he jumped aboard the Macron train), he has been — brace yourselves — a reservist in operational cyber-defence. Wtf, as the kids say.

Éric Bothorel is, like Thierry Breton, under American sanctions: he is barred from setting foot on Uncle Sam’s soil. It would be richly ironic if Washington were to extend those sanctions to the scandalous regime imposed on Nicolas Guillou — the French ICC judge who had every one of his accounts with American companies canceled, payment cards included. In Mr. Bothorel’s case, such treatment would be thoroughly deserved.

The grounds for his referral to the prosecutor’s office? Ensuring a safe and respectful environment for all; a lack of transparency regarding the criteria governing algorithmic changes and moderation decisions; and Elon Musk’s personal interventions in the running of the platform — a genuine danger and threat to our democracies. Lurking in the background: Law No. 2024-850 of 25 July 2024, aimed at preventing foreign interference in France — which was ultimately not retained in the indictment request. You couldn’t make it up.

The second crimina referral originated from a senior civil servant in charge of cybersecurity within a public administration. He flags a “major modification of the algorithm of platform X, leading to the promotion of a significant volume of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+ and homophobic political content, designed to distort democratic debate in France.” Chemically pure progressive whimpering.

From a procedural standpoint, the opening of a formal criminal investigation changes nothing: Elon Musk and the former CEO of X Linda Yaccarino are American citizens residing in the United States, and the Department of Justice has already refused its judicial assistance. Their failure to appear for voluntary questioning constitutes no offence, since the summons was never formally served on them. The same will apply to any summonses that may be issued by the investigative magistrates, should the federal government persist in refusing cooperation.

“A warrant tantamount to formal indictment”? What a joke. It will never survive Interpol’s compliance review for the issuance of a red notice — what common parlance calls an “international arrest warrant,” though it is nothing more than a request for police cooperation.

Because in Lyon — where Interpol is headquartered — they do not play fast and loose with the law, and the red notice request will be rejected as an infringement of fundamental human rights and as politically motivated: the persecution of dissidents, journalists, and so forth. If Musk and Yaccarino keep out out of France, they’re safe.

But the substance of this affair is far worse, and lays bare the true rot at the heart of French justice.

Criminal law enshrines a principle known as equality before prosecution, which prohibits what are called asymmetric prosecutions — meaning that any given offence must be pursued in the same manner regardless of who committed it.

A study by the highly reputable Canadian Centre for Child Protection revealed that the French telco and ISP Free — owned by Xavier Niel, a billionaire instrumental to Macron’s election in 2017 and 2022 — was the single largest source of child sexual abuse material detected between 2018 and 2020 by Project Arachnid. Nearly 48% of the content identified were linked to the file-hosting service dl.free.fr, with over 18,000 archives collectively containing close to 1.1 million photos and videos.

So why has Mr. Xavier Niel never been prosecuted for complicity in the possession of child sexual abuse material, or for the distribution and supply of such material by an organised group? Mr. Niel did spend one month in pre-trial detention in 2004 for aggravated pimping. He collected cash from peep-shows he held stake in and was eventually sentenced for diversion of corporate funds.

And why is Mark Zuckerberg not facing the same charges as Elon Musk? Meta ticks every box. Child sexual abuse material and human trafficking — criminal proceedings currently underway in New Mexico, and a jury verdict in March 2026 imposing $375 million penalties for misleading users about platform safety and enabling the sexual exploitation of children. Algorithmic manipulation? The Cambridge Analytica affair alone would be enough to lock the Zuck up.

In short: if one can demonstrate — as we have just done — that others were not prosecuted for similar acts committed under comparable circumstances and with equivalent means, that this constitutes a breach of the principle of equality before prosecution, then the case collapses. In theory. But this is not the French way of the rule of law — you know, the one where it helps to know the judge, not the statute.

Everything being levelled at Elon Musk and X could equally be levelled at every social network and platform in existence. We would remind readers that the Law on Confidence in the Digital Economy of 2004 — transposing the EU E-Commerce Directive of 2000 — exempts platforms from any liability for user-generated content, provided they cooperate with authorities to remove illegal material. This is an obligation of means, not of result.

The prosecution of X being purely political, the Paris prosecutor’s office now finds itself cornered, and is quietly handing the poisoned chalice to three investigative magistrates who, one suspects, have rather better things to do than serve the regime’s meals on a silver platter.

It will be amusing to watch Washington hit back — because its extraterritorial laws are formidable instruments. Given that France’s ruling class, political and business alike, is corrupt to the marrow, the blows are liable to rain down hard.

Take, for instance, the Rafale fighter jet sale to India and the "commissions" disbursed — timidly investigated, at best, by the French judiciary. Or Mr. Xavier Niel foray in Ukraine.

1. People from the region of Brittany.

2. Pun: “Breizh” in Breton Gaelic means breton