Macron not happy with Elon Musk relaxing Twitter moderation rules

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday (December 1) expressed his displeasure over relaxation of content moderation policies on Elon Musk-owned Twitter. Macron said that relaxation of policies was a "big issue". He was talking in an interview on television show Good Morning America.

"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 said in the interview, adding that he is in favor of more regulation.

Twitter, now owned by Musk, decided to roll back a policy that was designed to tackle misinformation related to Covid. This has raised risk of false news just when infections are on the rise in China and elsewhere.

Musk acquired Twitter in October. Since then, the world's richest man has restored some accounts that were previously suspended. This includes account of former US President Donald Trump. Last week, Musk said that Twitter will provide a "general amnesty" to some suspended accounts.

Macron's comments have come after a report that the European Union (EU) has threatened Twitter with a ban unless Musk abides by its strict rules on content moderation.

There was no immediate reaction from Twitter or from Musk after Macron's comment.

Musk said last month that Twitter was experiencing a "massive drop in revenue" as advertisers pause spending. He blamed civil rights groups that have been pressing the platform's top advertisers to take action if he did not protect content moderation.

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