Emmanuel Macron and Elon Musk celebrated trading on Friday over content moderation on Twitter, while the businessman has so far made decisions largely contrary to urgings from the French president and other European leaders.
“I speak about it here, on Twitter, because that is what it is about. This afternoon I met with Elon Musk and we had a clear and candid discussion.” Emmanuel Macron wroteon a state visit to the United States.
The interview took place in New Orleans and lasted an hour. It had not been previously announced by the Élysée, and was kept away from the media.
“Transparent terms of use, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of expression: Twitter must make an effort to comply with European regulations,” added the Head of State in a series of tweets.
He also said he discussed with the Tesla co-founder “future green industrial projects, such as the production of electric vehicles and batteries.” “It was an honor to see you again”, replied Elon Musksaying he was “impatient” about “exciting projects in France”.
Freedom of expression “implies responsibilities and limits”
The world’s richest man bought the influential platform at the end of October for $44 billion. His absolutist vision of freedom of expression worries many users, authorities and advertisers, who fear a wave of hate and misinformation.
“Elon Musk has confirmed the participation of Twitter in the Christchurch Call. Terrorist and violent content has no place anywhere,” detailed the French president, referring to an initiative launched by several States and NGOs in 2019, after the murder in Christchurch, New Zealand, the one whose images remained accessible online for several hours.
The businessman did not react on this point. He had initially promised a content moderation board responsible for all important decisions, but he himself finally decided to restore many accounts, starting with that of former US President Donald Trump, banned after the attack on the Capitol in January 2021.
It also put an end to the fight against false information linked to Covid, which is a “big problem”, according to Emmanuel Macron. “I think we have to take the issue head-on. I’m in favor of the exact opposite, more regulation. We do it (in France, editor’s note) and we do it at the European level,” he said. He said Thursday during an interview with ABC.
Freedom of expression “implies responsibilities and limits. You cannot go out into the street to make racist or anti-Semitic comments, it is a point that it is important for me to defend,” he added.
The new owner of Twitter has fired more than half of the employees of the Californian group, and the content moderation teams have not been spared. According to several NGOs, including the Center to Counter Digital Hate, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-Semitic messages have increased “shockingly” on the platform over the past month.
“Completely false,” Elon Musk tweeted in response to an article in the New York Times detailing the conclusions of the associations. He claimed that the number of times users see tweets containing hate speech “continues to decline.”
The libertarian businessman recently clarified his personal boundaries on free speech. American rapper Kanye West’s account has been suspended for “inciting violence”, particularly after posting admiring comments towards Hitler. And Elon Musk opposes the return of Alex Jones, the far-right American cabal convicted of claiming a school massacre was just a stage show by anti-gun opponents.
Having experienced the death of his first child, the billionaire explained that he “had no mercy on anyone who used the death of children for financial, political or fame gain.”
Emmanuel Macron also concluded his series of tweets by stating: “We will work with Twitter to improve the protection of children online. Elon Musk confirmed this to me today. Let’s better protect our children online!”
Source: BFM TV
