Elon Musk refused to appear before Paris prosecutors Monday, skipping a scheduled meeting as part of a long-running French investigation into his social media platform X. The summons came more than two months after authorities raided X's Paris offices in February. Prosecutors have been investigating the company since January 2025, examining potential charges including complicity in distributing child sexual abuse imagery, producing Holocaust denial content, and fraudulent data extraction.

Musk had previously denounced the investigation as a "political attack," making his no-show expected. The Paris prosecutor's office stated his absence "will not hinder the continuation of the investigation" and emphasized judicial independence guaranteed by the French Constitution. The case sits at the center of a broader trans-Atlantic clash over tech regulation, with Europeans arguing they're protecting users from harmful content while the Trump administration calls European enforcement an attack on free speech.

The financial stakes are significant. In December, the EU fined X $140 million under its new Digital Services Act—the first penalty of that kind. The following month, European regulators launched a separate investigation into Grok, X's AI chatbot, for allegedly spreading Holocaust denial and sexual deepfakes. French authorities have shown rare willingness to hold top tech executives personally accountable for platform content.