Emmanuel Macron believes that end of fight against disinformation linked to COVVI-19, decided by Elon Musk

After the European Commission, the French president launched a warning to the new social network for “more regulation” of content on Thursday. Mr. Musk had announced Tuesday the end of the fight against “misleading information” linked to the pandemic.

mo12345lemonde with AFP

While the COVVI-19 epidemic experiences an upsurge, the end of the fight against disinformation linked to the pandemic on Twitter, decided by the new owner of the social network, Elon Musk, is a “big problem”, estimated Thursday 1 er December Emmanuel Macron.

During an interview with the American channel ABC, on the sidelines of his state visit to the United States, the French president said: “I think we have to take the subject with a le-corps, I Am in favor of the exact opposite, more regulation. We do it [in France] and we do it at European level. “

Recently seizing Twitter for $ 44 billion (42.5 billion euros), the American businessman has undertaken to upset the moderation of content on the social network. Among these measures, the end of the fight against “deceptive information on the COVVI-19” since November 23, announced the company on Tuesday.

The French head of state therefore reacted Thursday by affirming that freedom of expression “implies responsibilities and limits. You cannot go out and make racist or anti -Semitic remarks, this is a point that It is up to me to defend “.

New European regulations in view

A conception of freedom of expression very far from that defended by Elon Musk, a fervent supporter of Free Speech, who considers on the contrary, in a very libertarian conception, that the latter should not know any limit.

Even more, the American billionaire has never made mystery of his opinion about the health restrictions set up to fight against the pandemic, especially when they have signified the temporary closure of his Tesla factory in California.

“Tell people that they cannot leave their homes and that they would be arrested if they did it, it’s fascist. It is not democratic. It is not freedom. people their damn freedom, “he had taken himself in April 2020, at a conference call for financial analysts.

The very large online platforms, such as Facebook, Amazon or Twitter, will have to apply “around the summer of 2023” the new European Union law (EU) that came into force in November to eliminate the areas of no -rut on the internet.

These rules include the obligation to act “promptly” to withdraw any illicit content as soon as the platform is aware of it, or the obligation to inform the judicial authorities when they suspect a “serious criminal offense”.

They also include prohibitions, such as that of exploiting the “sensitive” data of users (genre, political trend, religious affiliation, etc.) for targeted advertising. And transparency obligations, such as the publication of the main parameters used by recommendation systems.

Twitter must “significantly increase its efforts”

The warning launched by Emmanuel Macron Thursday thus supports that addressed by the European Commission on Wednesday to the billionaire, by the voice of his commissioner at the internal market, the Frenchman Thierry Breton, during a telephone exchange. The Frenchman reminded Elon Musk that the company had “significantly increased its efforts” if it wanted to comply with the European rules in the fight against disinformation.

“Let’s be clear: there is still an enormous work to be accomplished” and Twitter will have to “considerably strengthen the moderation of content, protect freedom of expression and attack with determination to disinformation”, he said , according to a report of the exchange communicated in Brussels.

mm. Musk and Breton “have agreed that the commission services will carry out a resistance test at the Twitter headquarters in early 2023, which will allow Twitter to assess its compliance even before the legal deadlines,” said the European Commissioner.

Since his recent Twitter takeover, Elon Musk has also reautored the return of many suspended or banned accounts of the social network. Among them, that of former president Donal Trump, suspended in January 2021 for appeal to violence, after the assault of the Capitol led by his supporters.

/Media reports cited above.