Elon Musk’s X said it won’t comply with French authorities’ demands in a probe into alleged bias and manipulation of the social media platform’s algorithm.
Investigators have asked X to provide access to its recommendation engine and data on user posts, the company said in a post on its Global Government Affairs handle on Monday.
“X remains in the dark as to the specific allegations made against the platform,” the company said. “X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech.”
ALSO READ: EU stalls probe into Musk's X amid US trade talks, FT reports
Investigators said Monday that they’re trying to determine whether personal data was “fraudulently extracted from the platform” and that they’d sent X a letter on July 19 asking the company to share its algorithm as part of the probe. Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors opened an investigation into suspected interference and fraudulent data extraction.
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.”
READ MORE: French police launch investigation into social media platform 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.