PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron has called for international regulation to curb the spread of ideological extremism in Western democracies, eradicate technological ventures and political correctness in order for it to flourish.
In a group of reporters at the Élysée Palace, Macron said that the storm of the American Capitol was a sign of the West’s failure to curb social media platforms, which allowed them to become incubators of hatred, moral relativism and conspiracy theories.
The French leader conceived of technology companies – without mentioning them – because they had given former president Donald Trump a platform to “spread hatred” for years before taking action. Twitter Inc.
Trump’s personal bill banned in the wake of the January 6 riot, citing the risk of further incitement to violence. Facebook Inc.
a temporary suspension of mr. Trump announced after the riot before extending the action indefinitely.
“Everyone who allowed President Trump to succeed waited until they were absolutely sure that he no longer had the power to turn himself in with dignity and now say ‘Let’s take his whistle away,'” he said. Macron said. “Why didn’t they close his accounts before it all happened?”
Images of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 were shocking, Macron said.
Photo:
jim lo scalzo / Shutterstock
Mr. Macron said governments had transferred too much authority to technology enterprises by expecting them to act as stewards for Western democracy. “This is a problem for real international regulation,” Macron said.
The French leader made the remarks during his first meeting with the international media since contracting the coronavirus in late December. Mr. Macron sat in a gilded hall in the middle of a table that stretched the length of the room, wearing a black turtleneck sweater.
An ancient mechanical clock is ticking when Macron philosophically reflects on how Western democracies, under the influence of social media, are undergoing ‘a form of anthropological mutation’.
Mr. Macron said it was shocking to see images of an extremist dressed in a far-right costume in the Capitol ‘in the heart of power’.
“But the spread of this image has the effect of replication, like the virus,” he said. Macron said, referring to the pathogen that causes Covid-19.
A memorial service in October to assassinate French teacher Samuel Paty.
Photo:
Michel Euler / Associated Press
Mr. Macron said France was grappling with similar upheavals, from the protest movement in yellow vests to its years-long battle with Islamic terrorism. In October, a high school teacher was beheaded after class by an 18-year-old Russian of Chechen descent. The attacker went to school after seeing on social media a video of a Muslim parent blaming the teacher for showing his class pictures of the prophet Muhammad from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
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“Political correctness today jeopardized the primacy of the citizen over the believer”
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In recent months, the Macron government has closed mosques and other associations it suspects are practicing ‘Islamist separatism’, which Macron sees as a sustained campaign by religious extremists to undermine the institutions of the French republic. Opponents of the repression accuse Macron of stigmatizing the Muslim community in France, which is one of the largest in Europe.
Mr. Macron said he was acting in defense of the French civilian model. What one makes French, according to him, is an acceptance of reason, freedom and other values from the 18th Century of the Enlightenment.
Islamic ideologues want to drive a wedge between members of the French Muslim community and the French state, said Mr. Macron said, adding that French people sometimes compromise their Republican values out of sensitivity to faith.
“We have a real crisis in the French model of integration,” Macron said. “Political correctness today jeopardized the primacy of the citizen over the believer.”
Mr. Macron also acknowledged tensions in the Middle East, saying France could play a role in protests by regional powers such as Israel and Saudi Arabia to support any pressure to curb the 2015 international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program. let revive. In 2018, Mr. Trump withdrew the US from the agreement and further hampered its implementation.
Mr. Macron said the time was short because Iran was going to hold presidential elections in June. “There is an opportunity between now and the election. I think we need to seize it. ”
The Big Tech exhaustion over former President Donald Trump has sparked a debate over the future of content moderation on social media. WSJ talks to an information and moderation expert about what’s next.
Write to Stacy Meichtry at [email protected] and Noemie Bisserbe at [email protected]
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