Emmanuel Macron claimed to have had a “clear and sincere discussion” in New Orleans on Friday with the new boss of Twitter Elon Musk, insisting that the social network make “efforts” in terms of transparency and “reinforcement of moderation contents”.
In a series of tweets, the French president also said he had discussed with the founder of Tesla “future green industrial projects, such as the production of electric vehicles and batteries”, without further details. Elon Musk said in response “impatient” about “exciting projects in France”, without detailing them further.
“I talk about it here, on Twitter, because that’s what it’s about. This afternoon, I met Elon Musk and we had a clear and sincere discussion,” Emmanuel Macron wrote in French and English.
Christchurch call
The meeting, which lasted an hour, had not been previously announced by the Elysée, and was kept away from the media. “Elon Musk has confirmed Twitter’s participation 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 Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, the images of which remained accessible. online for several hours.
The richest man in the world, already boss of Tesla and SpaceX (space shuttles), bought the influential platform at the end of October for 44 billion dollars. Its absolutist view of freedom of expression is worrying many users, authorities and advertisers, who fear a surge of hatred and misinformation. Elon Musk originally promised a content moderation board responsible for all major decisions.
He finally decided himself to restore many accounts, starting with that of former US President Donald Trump, banned after the assault on Capitol Hill in January 2021. He also put an end to the fight against false information related at Covid, which is a “big problem”, according to Emmanuel Macron.
“I think we have to tackle the subject head-on, I am in favor of the exact opposite, more regulation. We do it (in France, editor’s note) and we do it at European level, ”he said Thursday during an interview with the ABC channel.