The United States attacked French justice on Friday 25 July, denouncing a criminal investigation open in France against the social network X, owned by Elon Musk, suspected of foreign interference.
“As part of a criminal investigation, a militant French prosecutor requests information on the algorithm owned by X and ranked X as an” organized criminal group “”said the US State Department in a message on this same network on Friday. “Democratic governments should allow all voices to express themselves, not to muzzle the discourses that displease them”claimed the Office of Human Rights, Democracy and Labor, which depends on the State Department, in this message on X. “The United States will defend the freedom of expression of all Americans against acts of foreign censorship”he added.
Since his return to power in January, Donald Trump, the vice-president, JD Vance, and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, have attacked several times that they consider threats to freedom of expression in Europe.
Aimed by a criminal survey of French justice, the social network led by Elon Musk is notably suspected of having modified its content display algorithms to highlight favorable themes to the far right, and to have given increased visibility to candidates in recent elections in Europe – promoting, for example, the Far Right Party Alternativ Für Deutschland (AFD) supports personally.
In response to these prosecution, the platform denounced a “Political agenda”. She said she refused to access the Paris prosecutor’s office to access her algorithm.
A “totally false” allegation
According to X, the French authorities have requested access to their recommendation algorithm as well as real -time data concerning all publications of the users of the platform.
The Paris prosecutor’s office had specified, on July 11, that an investigation had been entrusted to the gendarmerie concerning the X network, as a legal person, and against “Natural persons” who direct it, without specifying which people were targeted.
This survey conducted by the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie relates to the“Warning of operation” and the“Fraudulent data extraction” of a computer system “In organized gang”. Two heavy offenses in computer hacking, for which the Criminal Code provides up to ten years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros. The investigation comes after two reports received in January which “Reported the supposed use of x algorithm [ex-Twitter] for foreign interference purposes ”according to the prosecution.
The social network “Drive categorically” accusations of manipulation of his algorithm for foreign interference, “An allegation that is completely false”replied the social network on Monday in a post shared by the US State Department.
