French Prez Macron Demands Musk’s Twitter ‘Comply with European Regulations’ on Speech

Emmanuel Macron, Twitter
Emmanuel Macron, Twitter
Kurt Zindulka

French president Emmanuel Macron demanded that Elon Musk abides by European Union restrictions on speech on Twitter in a meeting on Friday.

Following a state visit at the White House with President Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron met with Tesla and Twitter chief Elon Musk in New Orleans, Louisiana. During the meeting, Macron said that he stressed again the need for Twitter to moderate so-called hate speech and alleged disinformation to comply with EU rules.

According to Macron, the pair also discussed the expansion of Tesla in France, including future “green industrial projects” such as the manufacturing of electric cars and batteries in the country.

Relaying some of the details of the hour-long meeting on Twitter, Mr Macron wrote that he told Musk that the social media giant must implement “transparent terms of use, significant reinforcement of content moderation” and, paradoxically, “protection of freedom of expression,” adding that “Twitter must make the effort to comply with European regulations.”

Notably, the right to freedom of expression as defined by the European Convention on Human Rights can be restricted “in the interests of national security, territorial disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”

 

The French leader said that Musk confirmed that the platform would abide by the principles of the 2019 Christchurch Call to Action Summit in Paris, which was co-chaired by Macron and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern following the terror attack on a mosque. The summit saw leaders agree to try to “eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online”. 

Finally, Macron claimed that Musk reaffirmed his commitment to implementing safeguards for children on the social media platform. Since taking over Twitter, the Tesla chief has made it a priority to try to stamp out the longstanding issue of child pornography on the site.

The statements from the French leader came just days after it was reported that the bloc had threatened to take the extraordinary Chinese Communist-style step of banning Twitter from the EU if it did not meet its speech standards.

The meeting between Macron and Musk also comes just days after the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) finally came into force.

The draconian legislation will empower Brussels with even more powers to police speech on the Internet and creates new enforcement mechanisms to punish platforms that fail to abide by the bloc’s rules on so-called hate speech and disinformation.

If a comply fails to comply with the tenets of the DSA by February 2024, the EU will be able to impose fines of up to six per cent of their global revenue and even possibly ban the platform altogether in the bloc.

While Mr Musk has claimed that the prevalence of hateful content has actually fallen since his takeover and further stated that he will continue shadow-banning accounts that spread supposedly hateful messages, establishment figures have complained about his decision to reinstate banned accounts, including that of former President Donald Trump.

Addressing concerns about the prospect of less censorship on the platform, the billionaire tech entrepreneur previously told European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton — the main force behind the introduction of the DSA — that he is “exactly aligned” with the philosophy of the EU on censorship.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka

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