The nebulous algorithms of X were already on the radars of French justice. But it will now look at their impact on the democratic life of our country. The cybercrime fighting section of the Paris prosecutor’s office opened on Wednesday an investigation targeting the social network and its leaders, suspected of having biased the platform algorithm for foreign interference, announced this Friday, July 11, the Paris prosecutor, Laure Beccuau.
An investigation was entrusted to the national gendarmerie against the X network, as a legal person, and against the “natural persons” who direct it, underlines the prosecutor in a press release, without quoting the name of its owner, Elon Musk, Multimillionaire also boss of Tesla and ex-Cost Killer of the Trump administration.
This comes after two reports received on January 12, which “Reported the supposed use of X algorithm for foreign interference”details the prosecution.
The first came from the Macronist MP for Côtes-d’Armor specializing in these questions, Eric Bothorel. He alerted the prosecution on “Recent changes in X algorithm, as well as apparent interference in its management since its acquisition by Elon Musk” In 2022.
He underlined a “Reduction of the diversity of voices and options”a platform that moves away from a goal of “Guarantee a safe and respectful environment for everyone”and “Lack of clarity as to the criteria that led to changes in algorithms and moderation decisions”, as well as “Personal interventions by Elon Musk in the management of his platform”, either “A real danger and a threat to our democracies”.
According to information from Chained duck In February, the second report came from a director of cybersecurity in the public service who had indicated “A major modification in the algorithm used by the X platform which today offers a lot of hateful political contentRacistes, Anti-LGBT +, homophobic and which therefore aim to bias the democratic debate in France ”.
The prosecution, which had confirmed in early February studying these reports, said this procedure this Friday in its press release on Friday in its press release “On the basis of checks, contributions from French researchers and elements provided by various public institutions”.
The survey was entrusted to the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie, and “notably” On the following offenses: alteration of the operation of an automated processing system in organized band, as well as fraudulent data of data from an automated processing system in organized band.
The boss of X France, Laurent Buanec, had provided on January 22 on his social network that “X has strict, clear and public rules aimed at protecting the platform from hate speeches”, “fight against disinformation” and that his algorithm “Is built so as to avoid offering you hateful content.”
The European Commission has already launched in December 2023 investigations for suspicions of manipulation of algorithms intended to make the messages of Elon Musk or the radical right more visible.