According to reports, Washington is not joining what it calls a politically-motivated case targeting an American tech business, according to a two-page letter sent Friday by the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs. The letter reportedly said, “This investigation seeks to use the criminal legal system in France to regulate a public square for the free expression of ideas and opinions in a manner contrary to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

DOJ rejects France’s requests on political grounds

The DOJ also said France’s requests “constitute an effort to entangle the United States in a politically charged criminal proceeding aimed at wrongfully regulating through prosecution the business activities of a social media platform.” French authorities had already made three separate requests for US help in 2025. Those included attempts to serve legal summons to X officials.

Investigators had already raided the company’s Paris office in February, pushing tensions higher between European regulators and the platform. X described that raid as “an abusive act of law enforcement theater.” French officials have since summoned Elon, former CEO Linda Yaccarino, and other employees for what they called voluntary interviews. Elon was scheduled to appear on Monday.

Under French law, skipping such a summons can lead to arrest warrants. That puts real legal risk on the table. Authorities are looking into claims tied to deepfake content and alleged bias in X’s algorithm, arguing the system favors Elon’s views. The case started in January 2025 after complaints from a lawmaker and another official who said the platform’s content selection could count as foreign interference in France.

Prosecutors are also reviewing serious charges like the distribution of child pornography. An xAI official allegedly said, “We are grateful to the Justice Department for rejecting this effort by a prosecutor in Paris to compel our CEO and several employees to sit for interviews.” The same official added, “We hope the Parisian authorities will now come to their senses, recognize that there is no wrongdoing here, and terminate their baseless investigation.” X operates under Elon’s AI firm xAI, which is now owned by SpaceX.

Meanwhile, as the legal fight plays out, France is also annoying Trump on a totally different front. President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer are working on a joint plan focused on the Strait of Hormuz. They are pushing a European-led mission to reopen the shipping route after the conflict ends, without relying on US leadership. The proposal introduces a naval force made up of Britain, France, and other non-belligerent countries. Deployment would only happen after the fighting stops.

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According to the report, the listing could see the company’s valuation jump close to $1.75 trillion. The idea was shared with banks by SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen, who has reportedly told Wall Street firms how the deal could be structured. The plan is still being worked on and can change at any time. The goal is clear: Elon Musk wants strong demand from everyday investors who already follow his companies.

Elon Musk says retail investors could get 30% of SpaceX after IPO

Demand from retail investors is expected to be strong, which includes family offices that have backed SpaceX for years and smaller investors who follow Elon closely. Many of them already tracked the company while it was private, and Elon expects them to hold their shares longer and avoid quick selling right after the IPO. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is apparently personally choosing the banks involved with SpaceX’s merger and giving each one a specific job.

Bank of America will handle retail investors inside the United States, Morgan Stanley will bring in smaller investors using its E*Trade platform, UBS will focus on wealthy investors outside the US, and Citi is handling global distribution across both retail and big institutions. Other banks are tied to regions, like Mizuho working in Japan, Barclays covering the United Kingdom, Deutsche Bank responsible for Germany, and the Royal Bank of Canada, of course, handling Canada.

Cryptopolitan had reported earlier that the retail share could go above 20%, and internal talks now point closer to 30%. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is still busy making changes inside X, having removed its chief marketing officer, Angela Zepeda, who had been in the role since September 2024. Her exit came after Musk announced a merger between xAI and SpaceX. In addition, the company has also cut more than 20 employees in recent weeks.

The job cuts affected those who were in nontechnical roles across marketing and other teams. These jobs were seen as overlapping with roles inside the combined structure. Staff who remain at X are now focused on revenue. Jon Shulkin is leading that effort. Shulkin is the chief revenue officer at xAI and also a partner at Valor Equity Partners. His role covers both the social platform and the AI business.

Revenue numbers show the current position. US ad revenue at X is expected to rise 1.5% to $1.27 billion. Global ad sales are projected to increase 2.2% to $2.19 billion. Back in 2021, before Elon took the company private, Twitter reported $4.51 billion in advertising revenue. These changes are happening while SpaceX moves closer to its public debut.

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In view of this development, industry influencers can now engage in paid partnerships to promote crypto products and services, provided they follow X’s labeling rules and clearly disclose sponsorships. Influencers are also responsible for ensuring that paid crypto content is blocked or not visible in regions where such promotions are restricted due to local regulations. The update essentially overturns a ban that dates back to at least June 2024. Still, in major markets, the restrictive measure is still in effect in the UK, Australia, and the EU.

X clears crypto and gambling promotions

The news was reported by analyst DeFi Ignas, who mentioned that digital assets are no longer listed under Prohibited Industries for paid promo on X. However, despite the recent exclusion, pharmaceuticals, tobacco, weapons, and diet-related products were added to the ban list. In addition, promotions for sex products and services, alcohol, dating platforms, and recreational and prescription drugs remain restricted.

The platform’s head of product, Nikita Bier, insists the updated ad policies are designed to help creators stay compliant and transparent with their audiences. He noted, “X’s core value is providing an authentic pulse on humanity. While we want to encourage people to build their businesses on X, undisclosed promotions hurt the integrity of the product and lead people to distrust the content they read on X.”

That means paid collaboration posts must show the “Paid Partnership” label. Additionally, influencers must ensure their content complies with applicable laws, including FTC rules. They must also clearly show the product, service, or CTA in the content, without requiring the user to follow extra links. Still, the updated policy sets a clear boundary between Paid Partnerships and routine ads.

X Money to enter external beta phase

The development permits some content to run through X Ads even if it wouldn’t be allowed in a partnership. However, users who violate X’s paid partnership policy may have their posts removed or their accounts suspended. Meanwhile, X Money is heading towards an external beta after completing its internal private beta. Founder Elon Musk revealed, “For X Money, we’ve actually had X Money live in closed beta within the company. We expect in the next month or two to go to a limited external beta, and then to go worldwide to all X users.”

He added that the goal is to make X indispensable for communications, news, or X Money, noting, “you could live your life on the X app.” What X Money is, he added, is a solution for all financial transactions — and, if it works together with XChat and more powerful communication tools, could change the way users engage with the platform, leading to growth to more than one billion daily users.

Overall, X Money supports Musk’s ambition to transform the platform into an all-in-one app for messaging, payments, and day-to-day activities. Although the company has yet to reveal concrete plans to integrate crypto assets into X Money. Earlier, former CEO Yaccarino had stated that X would add investment and trading capabilities, suggesting that digital assets could become part of its financial offerings.

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The announcement, which was posted on X’s Creators account, comes at a critical time as the social media platform struggles to regain its standing as the preferred platform for real-time conversations and breaking news. According to a recent report by Cryptopolitan, Threads is seeing stronger user engagement, particularly among the younger demographic.

X unveils a million-dollar bounty in creator loyalty program

X (formerly known as Twitter) announced a 1 million bounty on their Creators account. “We’re trying something new: we’re giving $1 million to the Top Article of the next payout period.” This was a move to recognize and reward high-impact content, which shapes conversation on the platform.

However, given the recent competition from Threads, users see it as a move to attract more content creators and improve its standing in the content creator economy wars. The bounty is targeted towards creators who write long-form content and is restricted to only US users. Ironically, the United States is one of the places where X is doing better than Threads, even though those numbers are not as impressive as they used to be.

In the announcement post, X said the content published must be an original work and at least 1,000 words. This isn’t the first time X has tried to use money to solve the problem. The platform had previously rolled out a monetization feature, where creators with large verified followings and impressions on posts are eligible for ad revenue sharing. While X has not formally acknowledged a user engagement competition with Threads, the timing of the bounty is not coincidental.

X’s announcement of a bounty raises more serious questions regarding creator retention. There is a growing perception that creators are starting to diversify, even though X still has a lot of cultural significance. Many creators now post simultaneously on X, Threads, and other platforms.

The competition between the social media platforms, however, goes beyond just features or money, but also includes user experience. Threads is positioning itself as a less toxic alternative to X, with better content moderation policies, which users find more appealing. Elon Musk’s X positions itself as a free-speech platform, which sounds appealing to some, but also alienates others.

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The timing lined up with a planned maintenance window at the company’s SCL (Santiago) data center, but Cloudflare didn’t say that this was the cause. What users saw was simple: pages failed, feeds wouldn’t load, and error screens took over the internet.

Major platforms hit with downtime caused by Cloudflare

The platforms hit were big names. People on X complained they could not refresh posts. Gamers trying to play League of Legends or Valorant saw reports pile up on Downdetector. Even the Cloudflare status page itself began breaking down around 7:03 AM ET, losing its CSS styling while the company said its team was “continuing to investigate this issue.”

The official statement earlier at 6:48 AM ET said the company was aware of a problem that “potentially impacts multiple customers” and that more information would come later. Users trying to work found themselves blocked from random corners of the internet. Anyone loading Canva ran into problems creating or saving content.

People trying to access OpenAI also bumped into messages telling them to “Please unblock challenges.cloudflare.com to proceed,” which also stopped access to ChatGPT. That message spread across many websites at once because the security layers Cloudflare normally uses to protect them were not working, even though the websites behind them stayed online.

People online tried to figure out if the error screens meant they were blocked. They were not. The Cloudflare tools that usually filter traffic were the part breaking, not the users. The outage came fast, broke things fast, and hit global platforms at the same time, which is why the impact felt huge. Shares of Cloudflare had slid by more than 4% at the opening bell.

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According to court documents, the regulator has accused Elon Musk of failing to meet a legal deadline to disclose that he had acquired over 5% of the company’s stock before launching his $44 billion bid to take over the company. The SEC argues that during the purchase of Twitter, now rebranded as X, a delay gave him an unfair advantage, allowing him to purchase additional shares at lower prices before he publicly announced his stake.

Elon Musk challenges claims made by the SEC

Elon Musk has taken a forward approach in his latest filing, challenging the SEC’s lawsuit. According to his legal team, the case should never have been brought, asserting that the SEC failed to demonstrate that the Billionaire violated securities laws in a way that harmed investors. They stressed that the delay in disclosure was not an attempt to mislead the market.

In their assertion, his lawyers said Elon Musk stopped buying Twitter stock upon realizing he had crossed the reporting threshold and promptly filed the required disclosure form the following business day after seeking legal guidance. The Billionaire’s lawyers said in the filing that the SEC had not claimed, and could not claim, that he acted with intent to defraud or mislead, let alone that he succeeded. They added that the entire case wastes the court’s time and taxpayer resources.

The lawyers also added that the regulator was unfairly targeting the billionaire. They accused the agency of pursuing him with an unusual level of intensity for years, suggesting the SEC has engaged in a “campaign of harassment.” This is not the first time Musk has levelled these accusations; in previous disputes, he accused the agency of using him as a political football.

Attorneys representing Elon Musk have also sought a venue change, noting that they prefer that the case be moved out of Washington, D.C., where the SEC is based, to a federal court in Texas, where X now has its headquarters, after Musk decided to move the company. They claimed that having the hearing in Washington would provide the SEC with an unfair home court advantage, compelling the executive to wage war in its backyard.

The lawyers have also noted that the SEC’s location should not be a determinant of the outcome of the case. They claimed that forcing the case to go on in Washington would increase the damage from what they called the SEC’s years-long crusade against him, which would ultimately harm shareholders. Meanwhile, the SEC is drawing an entirely different picture. According to the agency, Musk hit this 5% ownership threshold in March 2022, but waited 11 days to disclose it.

According to the SEC, during that period, the SEC claimed that Musk had spent over $500 million to purchase Twitter shares at artificially low prices. When he disclosed his 9.2% stake on April 4, 2022, the stock rallied 27%. The regulator mentioned that shareholders who sold before disclosure lost out on more than $150 million that they might otherwise have made. The lawsuit seeks to force Musk to pay a civil penalty and to block him from profiting from trades made during that period.

According to the agency, the delayed disclosure violated securities law and was intended to protect Main Street investors from being disadvantaged in the market. This is not the first clash between Elon Musk and the SEC, with the regulator suing him for a 2018 tweet where he said he had “funding secured” to take Tesla private. That case was resolved with a settlement in which the billionaire resigned as chairman of Tesla and had some of his tweets preapproved.

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In 2023, the agency reported that advertisements from major brands were appearing alongside antisemitic and other objectionable posts on blogging platform X. Many big advertisers then froze their spending on the platform, causing X to initiate a lawsuit against Media Matters. The company also sued several advertisers and industry groups, alleging a “systematic illegal boycott.”

Federal judge halts FTC inquiry into X advertising backlash

After Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, the FTC launched a review into whether Media Matters unlawfully coordinated with advertisers. The agency requested records tied to the group’s reporting and its outreach to brands. However, recent reports have noted that United States District Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan ruled in favor of Media Matters on Friday and put the FTC’s effort on hold, concluding the organization is likely to prevail on First Amendment claims.

Sooknanan, who was appointed by former president Joe Biden to the US District Court for the District of Columbia, wrote that the Media Matters article was “quintessential First Amendment activity” and called the FTC’s “expansive” demands “a retaliatory act.” She added, “It should alarm all Americans when the Government retaliates against individuals or organizations for engaging in constitutionally protected public debate. And that alarm should ring even louder when the Government retaliates against those engaged in newsgathering and reporting.”

She also pointed out the remarks made by Andrew Ferguson from before he became the FTC’s chair, noting his appearance on Steve Bannon’s podcast, urging scrutiny of progressive groups that critique online disinformation, and that once in the role he “brought on several senior staffers at the FTC who previously made public comments about Media Matters.”

Regardless of how the litigation goes, the courtroom strategy of X has already altered the environment for the entities it targeted. Media Matters has cut staff; one displaced researcher is now running for Congress. The World Federation of Advertisers shut down a brand-safety initiative and reportedly warned members about financial strain.

On Thursday, the WFA informed members that it was “discontinuing” activities for its Global Alliance for Responsible Media after X filed an antitrust case against the group earlier in the week. In an email seen by Business Insider, WFA CEO Stephan Loerke said the move was “not made lightly,” noting that GARM is a nonprofit with limited resources. He said the WFA and GARM will fight X’s allegations in court and are confident the case will “demonstrate our full adherence to competition rules in all our activities.”

That note came two days after X filed suit in a Texas court, alleging that GARM participants worked together to “collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue” from Twitter, now called X. The complaint also identifies several GARM participants, including Unilever, Mars, CVS, and Ørsted. Sooknanan further wrote that the FTC’s inquiry produced its “intended effect,” saying Media Matters chose “against pursuing certain stories about the FTC, Chairman Ferguson, and Mr. Musk.”

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Elon Musk called this act an “unequivocal antitrust violation” and says xAI will sue immediately. Despite the popularity of the platforms, Musk mentioned that Apple has refused to feature his AI chatbot Grok or the X platform in the App Store’s “Must Have” section. He added that this promotion gives OpenAI an edge and promotes unfair competition in the AI market.

Musk accuses Apple of blocking xAI and other AI apps

In his latest posts on X, Musk accused Apple of using its App Store policies and promotional choices in ways that do not give a fair advantage to all AI apps. He said Apple also made it extremely difficult for other artificial intelligence companies, including his firm, xAI, to reach the top spot in the store’s rankings.

Apple Store’s “Must Have” section highlights selected apps to millions of iPhone users and can dramatically influence downloads and popularity, which is the main reason why Musk is criticizing the company. He claimed that Apple has refused to include X and Grok in this premium promotional space despite X being, in his words, the number one news app globally.

He also added that Grok, the chatbot of xAI, presently ranks as the fifth most popular app overall across all categories, meaning that the exclusion could be politically motivated and not based on factors like user demand or performance. Musk suggested that the company’s actions go beyond standard business choices and into territory that he believes violates antitrust principles by asking Apple directly if it was “playing politics” in deciding which apps to promote.

The timing of Musk’s comments is essential because they come during a period when he has been increasingly aggressive in challenging what he deems unfair or monopolistic practices in the AI industry. Musk has also challenged the influence, control, and partnerships of tech firms over the last few years. The Tesla billionaire filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman, in the past.

Musk accused them of creating contracts that primarily benefited their financial interests and harming competition by setting strict limits on which investors could provide funding. He also called out OpenAI in the lawsuit for undermining its original mission by restructuring the company from a nonprofit research organization into a for-profit company.

Musk and his team detailed a long list of transactions and business decisions that showed clear conflicts of interest involving Altman in the legal filing. These included agreements with companies such as Rain AI, Humane, and Limitless, where Altman allegedly held financial stakes. The report also presented a deal involving Reddit that Musk claimed boosted the value of Altman’s shares by hundreds of millions of dollars.

He also added that actions did not prioritize the best interests of OpenAI, noting that Altman was steering the company towards arrangements that brought benefits. If the tech billionaire follows through on his warning, a lawsuit against Apple could quickly become one of the most closely watched cases in recent years.

The post xAI plans to sue Apple over alleged antitrust violations first appeared on Coinfea.

According to the information provided by the platform, it is refusing to comply as it still doesn’t know the exact details of the charges. X mentioned that the claims look politically charged, noting in its statement that “We remain in the dark about the specific allegations,” while adding, “We have not acceded to the French authorities’ demands.”

“However, based on what we know so far, X believes that this investigation is distorting French law to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech,” the platform added. France is yet to release an official response to the public refusal, but the legal action points to the increased pressure in Europe on Musk’s tech empire.

France piles on Elon Musk’s X amid Trump fallout

When Elon showed up to his final meeting at the White House on May 30, it wasn’t his usual ego or a SpaceX update that caught attention; it was the bruise under his eye. It took a full 40 minutes before anyone at the Oval Office meeting asked about it.“I said, ‘Go ahead, punch me in the face,’ and he did,” referring to his 5-year-old son, also named X. “I didn’t really feel much at the time. And then I guess it bruises up.”

That same day, The New York Times released an article claiming that people around Musk were worried about his erratic behavior, linking it to the use of psychedelic drugs. That image of him at the White House did nothing to calm nerves. The bruise wasn’t the only thing Elon was carrying out of Washington. His relationship with President Donald Trump, which once looked like an unbreakable alliance, went through a nasty, public breakup.

Musk had started to show up in Trump’s inner circle, wearing a hat that supported the President. In a tweet in February, he said, “I love @realdonaldtrump as much as a straight man can love another man.” He also bragged about slashing government spending, even as voters started to turn on the cuts he was making at the time, and that is when the cracks started to form.

However, during the honeymoon phase, advertisers who’d stopped working with X due to Elon’s antisemitic posts returned. SpaceX won government licenses. His net worth soared to $360 billion, boosted by Tesla, SpaceX, and his AI venture, xAI. At the time, things were going well. But now, everything is going the opposite direction with Tesla stock falling, Musk and Trump throwing shots at each other in public.

Now with the France investigation piling on, his businesses are looking more exposed than ever. Elon is rich on paper but cash poor, and heavily dependent on his companies staying in investors’ good graces. But those companies are financially tied together. If one drops, they all feel it. And Trump has plenty of ways to go after Elon if he wants; through military contracts, government funding, or regulatory firepower.

The post France commences criminal investigation into Elon Musk’s X first appeared on Coinfea.

However, the story is not the same for desktop users, with X seeing 145 million daily desktop users compared to Threads’ 6.9 million views. This split likely reflects user habits: long-time Twitter fans often log in on computers, whereas Instagram users, and now Threads users, tend to open the app briefly on their phones, scroll through a few posts, and then close it.

X and Threads lead as Bluesky follows

Bluesky, the smaller newcomer, also saw a jump but remains tiny in comparison. According to TechCrunch, Bluesky’s daily active user count rose by 372.5 percent year after year, reaching around 4.1 million. In total, about 37 million people have registered on the platform so far.

Despite its growth, Bluesky remains a minor player next to the giants. However, it does have potential in the long term. And that is less related to new surges of users who appear on the platform only to protest about the policies of another network, and more related to Bluesky’s push towards becoming a more open ecosystem.

On the other hand, picking sides between Musk’s X and Zuckerberg’s Threads can feel like a lose-lose decision. While Zuckerberg hasn’t stoked as much controversy as Musk, he did indirectly back and support Musk’s push on X at one point. In the meantime, Threads’ rapid growth shows that Zuckerberg can compete by offering a cleaner, mobile-focused space, even if it doesn’t yet match X’s desktop stronghold.

At the end of the day, many users may keep both apps on their phones, dipping into Threads for quick updates and relying on X when they want live-breaking news and constant conversation. The competition is far from over, but for now, Threads is showing that it can at least run alongside X in the race for daily attention.

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