The Ballad of Twitter and that Billionaire Bumpkin, Elon Musk

French headquarters of Elon Musk’s X raided by Paris cybercrime unit
Prosecutors summon tech billionaire and company’s ex-CEO for questioning as part of expanded investigation

Prosecutors have raided the French headquarters of Elon Musk’s social media platform X and summoned the tech billionaire and the company’s former chief executive for questioning as part of an investigation into alleged cybercrime.

“A search is under way by the cybercrime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, the national police cyber unit and Europol,” the Paris prosecutors’ office said in a post on X on Tuesday, adding that it would no longer be publishing on the network.

It added in a statement that Musk and Linda Yaccarino had been summoned for voluntary questioning “in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events”. Yaccarino resigned as CEO of X in July last year.

The prosecutor’s office said it was examining “alleged complicity” in offences related to the platform, including the spreading of child abuse images and sexually explicit deepfakes, the denial of crimes against humanity and manipulation of an automated data processing system as part of an organised group.

In 2020, Elon Musk announced he was moving to Texas from California and embarking on a personal austerity campaign to strip his life of belongings.

“I am selling almost all physical possessions,” he posted on social media. “Will own no house.”

But in the years since, Mr. Musk, 54, has quietly built an empire of more than 90 companies and other legal entities in Texas, which have amassed a vast collection of assets, according to an examination by The New York Times.
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Elon Musk, the world's first trillionaire, has announced legal action against German public broadcaster ZDF for a report that he said misrepresented his position.

The broadcaster had highlighted Musk's role in encouraging anti-migrant protests in Northern Ireland that turned violent.

"Legal action is being taken against ZDF for their outrageous lies," Musk said in a post on his social network X on Monday.

Musk shared posts from these two figures to his 240 million followers on X.

"Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!" Musk added in one of his posts on June 9.

Three days later, ZDF broadcast a half-hour segment covering the riots on its online news program ZDFheute live.

"A racist mob went on a hunt for migrants," the anchor said in introducing the segment. "This was called for by a British right-wing extremist and tech millionaire Elon Musk."

This 28-second clip was then shared on X by right-wing journalist Julian Reichelt, a former editor-in-chief of German tabloid-style newspaper Bild until he was fired in 2021 after reports of misconduct toward female employees.

Reichelt subsequently shared a screenshot that he presented as a response from the broadcaster, which he called for to be "dismantled."

In the post, ZDF appeared to defend its report but conceded that the host's choice of words was "imprecise" and "misleading."

"In its June 12, 2026, episode, ZDFheute live examined the role played by Elon Musk and right-wing influencers like Tommy Robinson in the run-up to the violent protests in Belfast. Tommy Robinson had called for protests. Elon Musk had shared the call to protest," the statement read.

"The host intended to succinctly summarize the complex situation surrounding the violent protests and the prior calls for protests on X at the beginning of the very comprehensive and nuanced 30-minute program. However, the wording chosen was imprecise and therefore misleading."

ZDF, which stands for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (Second German Television) is one of two nationwide public networks in Germany. It is in large part funded by the television license fees.