Elon Musk’s X said it won’t accede to French authorities’ demands in a probe into alleged bias and manipulation of the social media platform’s algorithm. “X remains in the dark as to the specific allegations made against the platform,” the company said in a post on its Global Government Affairs handle on Monday. “X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech.” Earlier in July, Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into suspected interference and fraudulent data extraction from “an automatic data-processing system.” The probe follows two reports from lawmaker Eric Bothorel and a high-level official at a French public institution alleging X’s algorithm was being used for foreign interference.X denies the allegations and said the probe stemmed from biased experts who have previously been involved in campaigns dedicated to getting users to quit X or “demonstrate open hostility towards X.” “The involvement of these individuals raises serious concerns about the impartiality, fairness, and political motivations of the investigation, to put it charitably. A predetermined outcome is not a fair one,” X said in the post. The company is also being investigated by the European Union over compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act, which requires platforms to tackle illegal content and disinformation and follow transparency rules. The EU is leading a global crackdown on harmful online content and disinformation that’s sparked increasingly vocal responses from Musk, who has said such measures restrict free speech.
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