Macron called the protection of free speech on social media "nonsense," criticizing the US position
Kyiv • UNN
French President Emmanuel Macron stated that protecting freedom of speech on social media is "pure nonsense," contradicting Donald Trump's foreign policy. European countries are considering banning social media for minors, while the US criticizes such actions as censorship.
French President Emmanuel Macron stated that protecting freedom of speech on social media platforms is "pure nonsense," contradicting a key foreign policy goal of President Donald Trump, UNN reports with reference to Bloomberg.
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European countries, including the UK and Germany, are considering social media bans for minors, with regulators arguing that these services are harmful and addictive. This could impact critical advertising revenue for companies including Instagram and Facebook Meta Platforms Inc., Snap Inc., Elon Musk's X, TikTok, and Google's YouTube.
The US has criticized such bans, stating that they censor free speech. The US recently imposed visa bans on a former European official and activists for attempting to control online hate speech, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified these moves as resistance to a "global censorship-industrial complex."
"Without any idea of how their algorithm is built, how it is tested, trained, and where it will lead you, the democratic consequences of this bias can be huge," Macron said on Wednesday in New Delhi.
"Some of them claim to uphold freedom of speech — well, we uphold free algorithms — fully transparent," Macron said. "Freedom of speech is pure nonsense if no one knows how you came to this so-called freedom of speech, especially when it leads from one hate speech to another."
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Macron warned earlier this month that he expects a clash between the European Union and Trump over the bloc's regulation of digital services, and that countries like France and Spain could become targets for the US as a result of their proposed social media bans for children.
In its national security strategy, the Trump administration stated that it would resist attempts by foreign states to "censor our discourse" or restrict freedom of speech. It added that the US would cultivate "resistance to Europe's current trajectory in European countries," which is seen as a tacit offer of support for Europe's far-right parties.
Vice President J.D. Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference last year, accused the EU of suppressing free speech and stated that Europe's departure from its fundamental values is a greater threat to the continent than Russia or China. Calling Trump the "new sheriff of Washington," Vance criticized attempts to moderate speech on social media.
Some EU officials were concerned that the US was using freedom of speech as leverage to intimidate the bloc into softening its regulation of tech platforms, Bloomberg previously reported.
American tech magnates have at times invoked free speech principles to resist increased oversight. Earlier this month, after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez criticized social media, Elon Musk wrote: "Dirty Sanchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain."
Macron is attending an AI summit in New Delhi, seeking to strengthen Franco-Indian ties as both countries re-evaluate their relationships with a more hostile US under Trump.
During his visit, the French president promoted a vision of multilingual, regulated AI, which differs from the more market-driven US approach and the state-controlled Chinese model.