X accuses French prosecutors of politically motivated free speech probe
Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors escalated a preliminary investigation into X over suspected algorithmic bias and fraudulent data extraction. Authorities enlisted police to examine potential wrongdoing by the company or its executives.
'Based on what we know so far, X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech,' the platform posted on its Global Government Affairs account. 'For these reasons, X has not acceded to the French authorities' demands, as we have a legal right to do.'
In a sharp rebuke, X also alleged the probe was instigated by French lawmaker Eric Bothorel, who accused the platform of manipulating its algorithm for foreign interference purposes. X dismissed the claim as 'completely false.'
The Paris prosecutors' office and Bothorel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk, a former ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has repeatedly criticized European governments for what he sees as attacks on free speech. He has also expressed support for some of the region's far-right parties.
The French investigation could widen tensions between Washington and European capitals over online discourse regulations. Former Trump administration officials have previously accused platforms of censoring right-wing voices globally.
X further objected to prosecutors' demands for access to its recommendation algorithm and real-time user post data, which would be analyzed by researchers David Chavalarias and Maziyar Panahi. The platform accused both of showing 'open hostility towards X,' raising concerns about the probe's impartiality.
Neither researcher responded immediately to requests for comment.
X also criticized the use of organized crime charges in the investigation, which could allow authorities to wiretap employees' personal devices.
The case follows similar legal scrutiny in France against Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, who faces judicial supervision over alleged organized crime on his platform. Durov denies wrongdoing.
Earlier this month, Musk agreed with Durov's claim that French officials were 'waging a crusade against free speech and tech progress,' responding simply, 'true.' - Reuters
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URUAPAN, Mexico (Reuters) -As broadcasters declared Donald Trump the next President of the United States, Sonia Coria turned to her husband and asked if they should go home. For seven months they had been living in Glendale, Arizona, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with Coria's aunt and slowly building a life far from the threats and cartel violence that made them flee Mexico. Coria, 25, took odd jobs as a cleaner and her husband, Carlos Leon, also 25, worked as a gardener. Their eldest child Naomi, eight, was going to a local charter school, making friends and picking up English. In the small kidney-shaped pool of the condominium building where they lived, she had learned to swim. Little Carlos, five, was learning to ride a bike. Their neighborhood in western Glendale - a city of some 250,000 people just outside Phoenix - was home to lots of Mexican migrants. 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Beyond the 239,000 people the administration has deported so far, some cuffed and led on to planes, the very public expulsion of migrants has had another effect: triggering tough and complicated decisions in immigrant households across the U.S. on whether to stay or leave. As they discussed returning to Mexico, Leon set one condition: That they wait until after Trump took office on January 20, to save up some more money and to see if he proved as hardline on migration as he'd promised. In the end, fear led them to leave before Trump had even been sworn in. 'PROJECT HOMECOMING' Despite high-profile deportations to Guantanamo or El Salvador, the total number of deportations under Trump trails former President Joe Biden's last year in office. Increasingly, persuading migrants to leave of their own accord has become a core strategy. "Self-deportation is safe," reads a DHS flyer on display at immigration courts in the U.S. "Leave on your own terms by picking your departure flight." The Trump administration in Marchlaunched an app called CBP Home designed to help people relocate and in May, Trump unveiled "Project Homecoming," a sweeping initiative that offers "illegal aliens" $1,000 and a free flight to leave. Since then, "tens of thousands of illegal aliens" self-deported through CBP Home app, a Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters, without giving further details. More than 56,000 Mexicans have voluntarily returned from the U.S. since Trump returned to the White House, according to Mexican government figures. Figures from last year were unavailable. Self-deportation is not a new idea. During the Great Depression and again in 1954's Operation Wetback, U.S. deportation campaigns pressured over a million Mexicans and Mexican-Americans to leave - far more than through formal deportations. 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Larios did not respond to requests for comment. It was a hard decision to leave. They had fled their hometown in February last yearafter armed men claiming to be members of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel began showing up at the avocado farm where Leon was working as a guard, demanding protection money. Leon didn't have the money to pay, and the owner was away. Now, they were going back. Uruapan is one of the most violent cities in the world, with an official murder rate of nearly 60 per 100,000 inhabitants. In recent years organized crime has taken over the area, running or extorting farms and businesses and killing those who refuse to pay. But the family hoped their savings would make a difference. They had managed to scrape together $5,000 and the plan was to buy land and open an auto repair shop using their pickup truck to help with the business. At 5 p.m., on January 19, they drew up to the Dennis DeConcini border crossing at Nogales. As they passed Mexican customs, the Mexican National Guard stopped their vehicle and asked for papers, the family said. Leon didn't have the car title, just a temporary permit issued that day, so officials confiscated the truck and threatened to arrest him for vehicle smuggling. The officials also took $5,000, the family's entire savings, for what they called a fine before Leon could go free. With no car and no money, Coria, Leon, Naomi and Carlos sat on the ground outside customs, surrounded by their remaining possessions - 100 kilos of clothing, tools, kitchen utensils, a television, refrigerator, and children's toys. "We lost everything," Coria recalled, in tears. "We left with nothing and came back worse off." A spokesperson from Mexico's National Customs Agency declined to comment on the specifics of the Coria case. 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The four of them shared a small room with no door in the tin-roofed home belonging to Coria's mother. The couple slept on the floor, and the kids shared a bed with no mattress. They later moved into an even smaller room at an aunt's house. Leon eventually found work in a car repair workshop. Coria got a job in a Chinese children complain about leaving the United States. Carlos asks for his bike; Naomi is forgetting her English. In June, a 62-page letter from customs seen by Reuters informed them that their truck had been seized and had become property of the federal treasury. Also, that they owe the equivalent of $18,000in customs duties for bringing in the F-150 to Mexico. (Reporting by Diego Oré; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington DC and Kristina Cooke in San Francisco; Editing by Stephen Eisenhammer and Suzanne Goldenberg)
