Haine content: France opens a survey against the social network X

The cybercrime fighting section of the Paris prosecutor’s office opened on July 9 an investigation targeting the social network X and its leaders, the Paris prosecutor announced on Friday. They are suspected of having biased the platform algorithm for foreign interference purposes

An investigation was entrusted to the national gendarmerie against the X network, as a legal person, and against the “natural persons” who direct it, said Laure Beccuau in a press release. The name of its owner, Elon Musk, multimillionaire, also boss of Tesla, is not cited.

This comes after two reports received on January 12, which “reported the supposed use of the X (ex-Twitter) algorithm for foreign interference”, details the public prosecutor.

The first came from the Macronist MP for Côtes-d’Armor specializing in these questions, Eric Bothorel. He alerted the prosecution for “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 in the diversity of votes and options”, a platform which moves away from a goal of “guaranteeing a safe and respectful environment for everyone”, a “lack of clarity as to the criteria that led to changes in algorithms and moderation decisions”, as well as “personal interventions of Elon Musk in the management of its platform”, that is “a real danger and a threat to our democracies”.

According to information from the Duck chained in February, the second report came from a director of cybersecurity in the public service who had reportedly reported “a major modification in the algorithm used by the X platform which today offers a lot of hateful, racist, anti-LGBT+, homophobic political content and which therefore aim to bias the democratic debate in France”.

The prosecution, which had confirmed in early February studying these reports, said in its press release on Friday to have opened this procedure “on the basis of verifications, contributions from French researchers and elements provided by various public institutions”.

The survey was entrusted to the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie, and relates “in particular” to 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 assured on January 22 on his social network that “X has strict, clear and public rules aimed at protecting the platform from hatred speeches”, “fight against disinformation” and that his algorithm “is built so as to avoid offering you hateful content.”