Published: 12.03.2022 - 08:33
Emmanuel Macron and Elon Musk happily exchanged views on Twitter content moderation on Friday, while the entrepreneur has so far made decisions largely contrary to the admonitions of the French president and other European leaders.
“I’m talking about it here on Twitter because that’s what it’s all about. I met with Elon Musk this afternoon (Friday, December 2) and we had a clear and sincere discussion,” wrote Emmanuel Macron during a state visit to the United States. United States. The interview took place in New Orleans and lasted one hour. The Élysée had not previously announced it and stayed away from the media.
“Transparent terms of use, a significant increase in content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: Twitter must make an effort to comply with European regulations,” the head of state added in a series of tweets.
He also said he had discussed with the Tesla co-founder “future green industrial projects such as electric vehicles and batteries.”
“It was an honor to see you again,” Elon Musk replied, saying that he was “impatient” about the “exciting projects in France.”
It was an honor to see you again. Looking forward to exciting plans in France!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 3, 2022
The richest man in the world bought the influencer platform in late October for $44 billion. His absolutist vision of free speech worries many users, authorities and advertisers who fear a surge of hate and misinformation.
Elon Musk has confirmed Twitter’s participation in the Christchurch call. Terrorist and violent content has no place anywhere,” the French President said, referring to an initiative launched by several states and non-governmental organizations in 2019 after the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand. of which remained available online for several hours.
“There’s still a lot of work ahead”
The businessman did not react at all to this moment. Initially, he promised to set up a content moderation board responsible for all major decisions, but he himself eventually decided to restore many accounts, starting with the account of former US President Donald Trump, who was banned after the attack on the Capitol in January 2021.
He also put an end to the fight against misinformation related to Covid-19, which Emmanuel Macron says is a “big problem”.
“I think we should seriously address this issue, I’m for the exact opposite, for more regulation. We’re doing it (in France, editor’s note) and we’re doing it at the European level,” he said Thursday during an interview with ABC. Freedom of speech “means responsibility and limitations. You can’t go out and make racist or anti-Semitic remarks, this is a point that is important for me to defend,” he added.
Back on Wednesday, European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton told Elon Musk that “there is still a huge amount of work to be done.” According to a report from their telephone exchange, Twitter will have to “significantly increase its content moderation (…) and fight disinformation decisively.”
Kanye West, Alex Jones… Elon Musk’s personal restrictions on freedom of speech
The new owner of Twitter fired more than half of the employees of the Californian group, and the content moderation teams did not bypass.
According to several NGOs, including the Center to Combat Digital Hate, racist, homophobic, misogynistic and anti-Semitic messages on the platform have increased “shockingly” over the past month.
“A complete lie,” Elon Musk tweeted in response to a New York Times article detailing the association’s findings. He stated that the number of times users see hate tweets “continues to drop”.
A libertarian entrepreneur recently clarified his personal restrictions on free speech.
The account of the American rapper Kanye West was blocked for “incitement to violence”, in particular, after the publication of admiring remarks about Hitler. And Elon Musk opposes the return of Alex Jones, the far-right American conspirator convicted of alleging that the school massacre was just a staging of anti-guns.
After surviving the death of his first child, the multi-billionaire explained that he is “ruthless to anyone who takes advantage of the death of children for (obtaining) financial, political or glorious gain.”
Emmanuel Macron also ended his series of tweets by stating: “We will work with Twitter to improve child protection online. Elon Musk confirmed this to me today. Let’s better protect our kids online!”
With AFP