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Tag: Roland Lescure

  • France will investigate Musk’s Grok chatbot after Holocaust denial claims

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    PARIS (AP) — France’s government is taking action against billionaire Elon Musk ‘s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok after it generated French-language posts that questioned the use of gas chambers at Auschwitz, officials said.

    Grok, built by Musk’s company xAI and integrated into his social media platform X, wrote in a widely shared post in French that gas chambers at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp were designed for “disinfection with Zyklon B against typhus” rather than for mass murder — language long associated with Holocaust denial.

    The Auschwitz Memorial highlighted the exchange on X, saying that the response distorted historical fact and violated the platform’s rules.

    In later posts on its X account, the chatbot acknowledged that its earlier reply to an X user was wrong, said it had been deleted and pointed to historical evidence that Auschwitz’s gas chambers using Zyklon B were used to murder more than 1 million people. The follow-ups were not accompanied by any clarification from X.

    In tests run by The Associated Press on Friday, its responses to questions about Auschwitz appeared to give historically accurate information.

    Grok has a history of making antisemitic comments. Earlier this year, Musk’s company took down posts from the chatbot that appeared to praise Adolf Hitler after complaints about antisemitic content.

    The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that the Holocaust-denial comments have been added to an existing cybercrime investigation into X. The case was opened earlier this year after French officials raised concerns that the platform’s algorithm could be used for foreign interference.

    Prosecutors said that Grok’s remarks are now part of the investigation, and that “the functioning of the AI will be examined.”

    France has one of Europe’s toughest Holocaust denial laws. Contesting the reality or genocidal nature of Nazi crimes can be prosecuted as a crime, alongside other forms of incitement to racial hatred.

    Several French ministers, including Industry Minister Roland Lescure, have also reported Grok’s posts to the Paris prosecutor under a provision that requires public officials to flag possible crimes. In a government statement, they described the AI-generated content as “manifestly illicit,” saying it could amount to racially motivated defamation and the denial of crimes against humanity.

    French authorities referred the posts to a national police platform for illegal online content and alerted France’s digital regulator over suspected breaches of the European Union’s Digital Services Act.

    The case adds to pressure from Brussels. This week, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, said that the bloc is in contact with X about Grok and called some of the chatbot’s output “appalling,” saying it runs against Europe’s fundamental rights and values.

    Two French rights groups, the Ligue des droits de l’Homme and SOS Racisme, have filed a criminal complaint accusing Grok and X of contesting crimes against humanity.

    X and its AI unit, xAI, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

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  • EU backs small parcel duties to tackle China import flood

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    Today, there is no levy on packages worth less than 150 euros ($174) imported directly to consumers in the EU (Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV)

    EU states on Thursday agreed to scrap a bloc-wide duty exemption on low-value orders from the likes of retail giants Temu and Shein to help tackle a flood of cheap Chinese imports.

    Currently there is no levy on packages worth less than 150 euros ($174) imported directly to consumers in the 27-nation bloc, in many cases via Chinese-founded platforms.

    Last year, 4.6 billion such small packages entered the EU — more than 145 per second — with 91 percent originating in China. The EU expects the numbers to rise.

    Member states, including France, and the EU executive hope the duty exemption can be done away with from the start of next year, rather than 2028.

    They will now work on “a simple, temporary solution to enable earlier implementation as soon as possible”, an EU official said.

    European retailers say they face unfair competition from overseas platforms, such as AliExpress, Shein and Temu, which they claim do not often comply with the EU’s stringent rules on products.

    “Reaching a political agreement… sends a strong signal that Europe is serious about fair competition and about defending the interests of its businesses,” EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said after the agreement.

    “Europe must be able to protect its borders effectively and uphold fair competition,” he added.

    The move comes as the EU strives to bolster the continent’s competitiveness by making the lives of European businesses easier through slashing red tape.

    – France hails ‘key step’ –

    France is especially worried since around 800 million such packages were shipped to France alone last year.

    French Finance Minister Roland Lescure welcomed the decision, saying Paris’s efforts to reach an agreement had “paid off”.

    “This is a key step for the protection of European consumers and the internal market to fight more effectively to prevent dangerous products and those that do not comply with our European regulations entering,” Lescure told AFP.

    “We have taken a major step for the economic sovereignty of the European Union,” the minister added.

    Alongside the move agreed on Thursday, the EU executive in May proposed a small package handling fee worth two euros.

    EU member states have yet to agree on the fee’s level, but hope it will apply from late 2026.

    Fed up with waiting, some states have already moved forward with their own plans, including Romania, which has imposed a five-euro fee on small parcels.

    raz/del/sbk

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  • France threatens to block Shein over sale of childlike sex dolls ahead of Paris store opening

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    PARIS (AP) — French authorities have warned they may block access to Shein after it emerged that the online fast fashion giant had been selling sex dolls with a childlike appearance.

    France’s consumer watchdog, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, said last week it had discovered the dolls on Shein’s website, noting that their descriptions and categorization left little doubt as to their child-pornographic nature.

    The agency has referred the case to public prosecutors, and Economy Minister Roland Lescure said on Monday he would seek to ban Shein from the French market if such incidents were to occur again.

    “This is provided for by law,” he said. “In cases involving terrorism, drug trafficking, or child pornographic materials, the government has the right to request that access to the French market be prohibited,” Lescure told BFM TV.

    The law authorizes French authorities to order online platforms to remove clearly illegal content such as child pornography within 24 hours. If they fail to comply, authorities can require internet service providers and search engines to block access and delist the site.

    The watchdog said it has issued a formal notice urging the platform to take urgent corrective measures.

    Shein said in a statement that it has banned all sex-doll products, and temporarily removed its adult products category for review. It added that it has launched an investigation to determine how these listings bypassed its screening measures.

    “The fight against child exploitation is non-negotiable for Shein,” said Executive Chairman Donald Tang said in the statement. “These were marketplace listings from third-party sellers, but I take this personally. Trust is our foundation, and we will not allow anything that violates it.”

    He noted that every related product has been removed and that “We are tracing the source and will take swift, decisive action against those responsible.”

    Meanwhile, a parliamentary fact-finding mission on the inspection of products imported into France announced it will summon Shein officials for questioning.

    “No economic actor can consider themselves above the law. A retailer who sold such an item would have had their store immediately closed by a prefectoral order. Shein must provide an explanation,” said the mission rapporteur, Antoine Vermorel-Marques.

    People protest outside BHV Marais departement store in Paris, Monday, Oct. 3, 2025, where Shein is due to open its first permanent physical store world wide. Poster right reads, “Shein is involved in child sexual abuse”. (AP Photo/Nicolas Garriga)

    Under French law, the distribution via electronic communication networks of child-pornographic materials is punishable by up to seven years in prison and a 100,000 euro ($115,000) fine.

    The watchdog also noted that Shein sells other pornographic products including adultlike sex dolls without effective age-filtering measures to prevent “minors or sensitive audiences from accessing such pornographic content.”

    Shein was founded in China in 2012, and the low-cost online retailer is now based in Singapore. Reaching customers mainly through its app, it has enjoyed a meteoric rise to become a global leader in fast fashion, shipping to 150 countries. The company has faced criticism over its labor practices and environmental record.

    Lescure’s comments came just days before Shein is due to open its first permanent physical store in Paris, located inside the BHV Marais department store in the heart of the French capital city. The opening has sparked controversy, with an online petition protesting Shein’s arrival gathering more than 100,000 signatures.

    Frederic Merlin, president of Societe des Grands Magasins, which owns BHV, called the sale of the dolls on Shein’s platform “indecent” and “unacceptable,” adding that “no product from Shein’s international marketplace” will be sold at the department store.

    Meanwhile, the child-protection NGO Mouv’Enfants staged a protest at BHV. “As long as these dolls are available somewhere in the world, the company will remain an accomplice to a system that enables sex crimes against children,” co-founder Arnaud Gallais said.

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  • New French Cabinet named as Lecornu seeks to ease political turmoil

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    France’s recently reappointed Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu unveiled a new Cabinet on Sunday evening, the Élysée Palace announced, as he faces mounting pressure to stabilize the government and push through a crucial budget.

    Several key Cabinet portfolios remain in the hands of the incumbents.

    Lecornu has kept Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin and the new Economy and Finance Minister Roland Lescure, who was only appointed a week ago, in office.

    Former labour minister Catherine Vautrin will become defence minister, a post previously held by Lecornu.

    Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez will become the new interior minister.

    The task of forming a new government in France has been facing renewed pressure as President Emmanuel Macron prepares to attend the Gaza summit in Egypt on Monday, making him absent at a crucial time.

    Lecornu, who got his job back on Friday a few days after resigning, needed to form a new Cabinet by Monday so that the 2026 budget can be presented after a Cabinet meeting on the same day.

    If this deadline is missed, France could enter the new year without an approved budget, further burdening its already strained public finances.

    Several opposition parties have already announced plans to table a motion of no confidence, even before new government was named, while others say their decision will depend on whether Lecornu promises a change in political direction.

    Whether the prime minister can survive the challenge remains uncertain. A confidence vote could take place as early as Thursday.

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