Macron attacks Musk over cutting Twitter moderation

EMMANUEL MACRON has attacked Elon Musk’s efforts to loosen moderation on Twitter, calling for “exactly the opposite” of the billionaire’s sweeping changes.

The French president described Mr Musk’s stewardship of Twitter as “a big issue”, and called for the billionaire to introduce “responsibilities and limits” on violent or racist speech on the platform.

In an interview on ABC, Mr Macron said: “The limit 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 a democracy.”

Mr Musk has pledged to restore thousands of banned accounts to Twitter and edit its rules to allow more free speech on the social network.

Of Mr Musk’s decision to loosen moderation, Mr Macron said: “What I push very much for, want, is exactly the opposite – more regulation.”

European regulators have warned Mr Musk that Twitter could face fines or even an outright ban under new rules for social media companies.

Thierry Breton, the European Commission’s top business tsar, said Twitter had “huge work ahead” to meet its obligations under the bloc’s new Digital Services Act. Mr Breton held a call with Mr Musk to discuss its plans to obey the rules.

“Twitter will have to implement transparent user policies, significantly reinforce content moderation and protect freedom of speech, tackle disinformation with resolve, and limit targeted advertising,” Mr Breton said.

The social network put out a statement on Wednesday insisting that “none of our policies have changed”.

Věra Jourová, the Commission’s vicepresident for values and transparency, told the website Politico: “In my view, Twitter now is jumping to the front of the queue of the regulators.”

Mr Musk has faced criticism for sacking vast swathes of Twitter’s workforce, including reportedly closing the company’s Brussels office and laying off 140 staff in Dublin.

On Wednesday, Twitter was forced to backtrack on some of its attempted sackings. Twitter told the High Court in Dublin it had restored a senior Irish executive, Sinead Mcsweeney, to her role after locking her out of its IT systems.

Yesterday, Mr Macron also criticised former US president Donald Trump for spreading the false theory that the US election had been manipulated or “stolen”. Mr Macron said: “This is just the beginning of the end of democracy.”