Macron in France calls for regulation of social networks to prevent ‘threat to democracy’

The French leader blamed technology companies – without naming them – for giving former President Donald Trump a platform to “spread hatred” for years before taking action. Twitter Inc.

banned Mr. Trump’s personal account after the January 6 riot, citing the risk of further incitement to violence. Facebook Inc.

announced a temporary suspension of Mr. Trump after the uprising before extending the action indefinitely.

“Everyone who allowed President Trump to succeed waited until they were fully sure he had no power to then wrap himself in dignity and say, ‘Let’s take his whistle,'” Mr. Macron said. . “Why didn’t they close his accounts before all this happened?”

Mr Macron said governments had delegated too much authority to technology companies, expecting them to act as administrators of Western democracy. “This is a problem for real international regulation,” Mr Macron said.

The French leader made the remarks in his first meeting with the international press, since he contracted the coronavirus at the end of December. Mr. Macron was sitting in a gilded ballroom in the center of a room-length table clad in a black collar.

An ancient mechanical clock ticked as Mr. Macron became philosophical about how Western democracies under the influence of social networks were subjected to “a form of anthropological mutation.”

Mr Macron said it was shocking to see images of an extremist dressed in a far-right suit inside the “Heart of Power” Chapter.

“But the spread of this image has the effect of replication – like the virus,” said Mr. Macron, referring to the pathogen that causes Covid-19.

Mr Macron said France was facing similar upheavals, from the yellow vest protest movement to the years-long struggle with Islamist terrorism. In October, a high school teacher was beheaded after school by an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen origin. The attacker went to school after watching a video on social media of a Muslim parent balancing against the teacher for showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

In recent months, the Macron government has shut down mosques and other associations suspected of practicing “Islamist separatism”, which Mr Macron sees as a campaign backed by religious extremists to undermine the French republic’s institutions. Opponents of the crackdown have accused Mr Macron of stigmatizing France’s Muslim community, which is one of the largest in Europe.

Mr Macron said he was working to defend France’s citizenship model. What makes a French person, he said, is the acceptance of reason, freedom, and other values ​​in the eighteenth century of the Enlightenment.

Islamist ideologues seek to create a rift between members of the Muslim community in France and the French state, Mr Macron said, adding that the French sometimes compromise their republican values ​​out of sensitivity to religious faith.

“We have a real crisis in France’s integration model,” said Mr Macron. “Political correctness today endangered the primacy of the citizen over the believer.”

Mr Macron also weighed on tensions in the Middle East, saying France could play a role in engaging regional powers, such as Israel and Saudi Arabia, to support any action to revive the 2015 international agreement to reduce the nuclear program. Iran. In 2018, Mr. Trump withdrew the US from the agreement, further reducing its implementation.

Mr Macron said time was running out as Iran held presidential elections in June. “There is a window of opportunity between now and the elections. I think we need to take advantage of him. ”

Write to Stacy Meichtry at [email protected] and Noemie Bisserbe at [email protected]