Macron tells Elon Musk that Twitter must follow rules of E.U.

French President Emmanuel Macron met on Friday with Twitter CEO Elon Musk and told him the social media company had to comply with the rules of the European Union regarding content moderation and freedom of speech.

During the meeting, which took place in New Orleans while Macron was in the U.S. for a state dinner, the French president reportedly talked to Musk about his handling of the Twitter platform. A number of decisions made by Musk, including the recent move to end Twitter's policy regarding COVID-19 misinformation, have been harshly criticized by E.U. countries, including French officials.

Macron reiterated these concerns during an interview with Good Morning America, calling the recent changes at Twitter a "big issue." Macron added, "What I push very much for is exactly the opposite: more regulation."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"Free speech and democracy is based on respect and public order. You can demonstrate, you can have free speech, you can write what you want, but there are responsibilities and limits," Macron added.

However, the meeting between Musk and Macron seemed to go well, Politico reported, with the Twitter CEO reportedly assuring Macron he would abide by the Christchurch Call, an international community aimed at preventing terrorism and extremist activity online.

Following the meeting, Macron tweeted words of encouragement regarding the conversation, describing it as a "clear and honest" talk.

"Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations." Macron said. "We will work with Twitter to improve online child protection."