PARIS (AP) – French President Emmanuel Macron says he was “very upset” about the way social networks muzzled Donald Trump at the end of his US presidency.
In a video interview with scholars, Macron cited Trump’s example by advocating for more government regulation of social media platforms. The remarks, which Macron made in English, were made public on Thursday by the think tank of the Atlantic Council.
“At the moment when they were sure” that he would not hold on to power, platforms that had previously “helped President Trump to be so effective” in making himself heard suddenly cut the microphone and put the microphone on silent 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 is not a democratic answer,” he said.
After years of selling Trump during his presidency, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter silenced his accounts during his last days in power, after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6 in a deadly uprising. Twitter permanently closed Trump’s account, @realDonaldTrump, which had 89 million followers.
Macron said the attack and the subsequent silence of Trump’s accounts were disturbing. He said more regulation of social networks was needed “to re-establish public and democratic order in this new space where our people think, live.”
“I do not want to live in a democracy where the most important decisions and the decision to cut your microphone at that point are decided by a private player, a private social network,” the French leader said.
“I want it to be decided by a law passed by your representative, or by a regulation, a government that is discussed democratically and approved by democratic leaders.”