(Reclaim The Net) French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Twitter’s owner Elon Musk for relaxing content censorship policies on the platform, arguing that content on Twitter needs more regulation. Macron made the comments in an appearance on ABC News ahead of his visit to The White House.
Macron said that democracies are under “very strong pressure” from forces like social media where users can say “crazy things about a vaccine, a pandemic, the war.”
This week, Musk said he would relax content moderation policies surrounding topics like the coronavirus.
Good Morning America and ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos said, “He’s making it worse, isn’t he?”
“I think this is a big issue,” Macron responded. “I think it deserves to be largely engaged. What I push very much for, want, is exactly the opposite – more regulation.”
Macron further argued that speech in a democracy has to be “based on respect and political order.”
The French President added: “You can demonstrate, you can have free speech, you can write what you want – but there is responsibilities and limits. The limits is you cannot go in the streets and have racist speech, or antisemitic speech, you cannot put at risk the life of someone else. Violence is never legitimate in democracy.”
Macron also criticized former US President Donald Trump, whose Twitter account was recently restored after an almost two-year ban after the January 6, 2021, riot at the US capitol.
