The microblogging service X and some of its employees are officially considered criminal suspects in France.
On July 9, the Paris prosecutor's office ordered the competent authorities to investigate two possible offenses against legal and natural persons:
- Tampering with the operation of an automated data processing system by an organized gang
- Fraudulent extraction of data from such a system by an organized gang
The focus is on Algorithm X, which shows selected posts to many users, but hides some comments.
The story began earlier this year with two complaints accusing X of interfering in France's internal political affairs with its algorithm. According to the prosecutor's office, the suspicion has since been substantiated by assessments, findings by French researchers and contributions from various public bodies to such an extent that it has tasked authorities with investigating what is happening to the company.
So the authorities requested access to the algorithm and real-time data. Of course, X is not cooperating.
With a publication, the social network denies the allegations and accuses the researchers of violating criminal law, data protection and restrictions on freedom of speech. Two named experts are said to be biased against X, something the company presented as evidence of a political motive behind the research.
The description “organized gang” (bande organizée) struck a particular chord.
“This description, which is usually reserved for drug cartels and mafia groups, allows the French police to use extensive investigative powers under French law,” including the monitoring of telephone conversations, X reports angrily and recalls that the presumption of innocence applies.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
