Social Media's Treatment of Trump Upsets Macron

French president doesn't like private companies making the decision to cut a president off
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 4, 2021 4:45 PM CST
Social Media's Treatment of Trump Upsets Macron
French President Emmanuel Macron talks to the media Thursday at the Elysee Palace in Paris.   (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Emmanuel Macron says he was "very upset" by the way social networks muzzled Donald Trump at the tail end of his presidency. Speaking in a recorded video chat with scholars, Macron cited Trump's example in arguing for more government regulation of social media platforms. The comments, which were made in English, were released Thursday by the Atlantic Council think tank, the AP reports. "At the very second when they were sure" that he would not hold onto power, platforms that had previously "helped President Trump to be so efficient" in making himself heard "suddenly cut the mic and put the mic on mute and killed ... all the platforms where it was possible for himself and his supporters to express themselves," Macron said. "It was a unique answer to deliver, but it's not a democratic answer."

After years of being outlets for Trump during his presidency, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter silenced his accounts during his last days in power, after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in a deadly insurrection on Jan. 6. Twitter permanently shut down Trump’s account, @realDonaldTrump, which had 89 million followers. Macron said both the attack and the subsequent silencing of Trump's accounts had been upsetting. He said more regulation of social networks is needed "to reestablish a public and democratic order in this new space where our people think, live." He added: "I don’t want to live in a democracy where the key decisions and the decision to at the point of them cut your mic ... is decided by a private player, a private social network." (A Trump ally has been booted from Twitter twice.)

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