The French president said he had “a clear and candid conversation” with the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, to insist that the social network must improve transparency and “strengthen content moderation.”
In a series of messages written on Twitter, Emmanuel Macron also said that he had discussed, in New Orleans, on Friday, with the founder of the Tesla company “future green industrial projects, such as the production of electric vehicles and batteries”, without giving details. ..
“I’m talking about this here on Twitter, because that’s what it’s all about. This afternoon I met with Elon Musk and we had a clear and candid conversation,” Emmanuel Macron wrote, in French and English.
The one-hour meeting was not previously announced by the Eliseu, and took place without the presence of the media.
Elon Musk confirmed Twitter’s involvement in the Christchurch appeal. Terrorist and violent content has no place anywhere,” Macron added, referring to an initiative launched in 2019 by various states and non-governmental organizations after the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, whose images remained accessible online for several hours.
Musk, who in addition to Tesla also owns SpaceX [viagens espaciais]bought Twitter in October for 44,000 million dollars (41,700 million euros).
But Musk’s vision, which advocated absolute freedom of expression on the social network, is causing concern among many users, authorities and advertisers, fearing an increase in hate messages and misinformation.
At first, the businessman promised a content moderation board responsible for all important decisions, but then decided to rehabilitate several accounts, starting with that of former US President Donald Trump, banned from the social network after the Capitol robbery in January 2021. .
Musk also ended the fight against false information linked to covid-19, which is a “big problem”, according to Emmanuel Macron.
“I think we have to face the issue head on, I am in favor of the exact opposite, more regulation. We’re making it [em França] and we are doing it at the European level”, Macron said, this Thursday, in an interview with the ABC channel.
The French head of state insisted that freedom of expression “implies responsibilities and limits. You can’t go out and make racist or anti-Semitic comments.”
After acquiring Twitter, Musk laid off more than half of the Californian group’s employees, sparing no content moderation teams.
He recently clarified his personal limits on free speech in a series of tweets.
On Friday, American rapper Kanye West’s Twitter account was suspended for “inciting violence” after he said he admired Hitler.
Elon Musk also said he would not allow far-right American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who was convicted for claiming a school massacre was organized by elements of the anti-gun movement, to return to social media.
After the death of his first child, Musk explained that he would be “ruthless towards anyone who uses the death of children for financial, political or fame gain.”
Emmanuel Macron concluded the series of ‘tweets’ with this statement: “We will work with Twitter to improve the protection of children online. Elon Musk confirmed it to me today [sexta-feira]???????? Let’s do a better job protecting our kids online.”
The French president even posted a photograph of the two men at the New Orleans Museum of Art, where he later delivered a speech on la francophonie at the end of a three-day state visit to the United States.
Source: Observadora
