French President Emmanuel Macron blasted tech company executives of social media platforms over refusals to limit or restrict speech. While speaking before a crowd in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday, Macron said the excuse used by tech executives citing free speech as the basis for the refusal to limit speech was “pure bulls***.”
“Some of them claim to be in favor of free speech. We are in favor of free algorithms, totally transparent,” said Macron. “Free speech is pure bulls*** if nobody knows how you are guided to this so-called free speech, especially when it is guided from one hate speech to another.”
He went on to criticize tech companies for their algorithms, explicitly claiming that a lack of admission or transparency into the origins and bases of social media algorithms is harmful and, as Macron put it, a danger to democracies worldwide.
“All the algorithms have biases, we know that,” Macron said. “There is no doubt. And they are so impactful, when you speak about social media, that having no clue about how the algorithm is made, how it is tested, and where it will guide you — the democratic biases of this could be huge.”
Macron’s scolding on Wednesday of the tech executives who run social media platforms is the latest in a recent string of criticisms. While speaking at the Munich Security Conference last week, the French president warned that Europe was “too weak and too naive” regarding speech on social media platforms. He stressed the dangers of allowing misinformation and “foreign influence” to operate without restriction or regulation, and the subsequent security risks in doing so.
“We are opening the Pandora box and allowing a lot of hate of speech in these platforms and social media,” Macron said in Munich. “We are too weak and too naive vis-à-vis external interferences and foreign differences. No doubt, we should forbid the capacity of these guys to interfere in our public space, and we should ask this platform first to completely block trolls bots.”
Macron has been an ardent supporter of social media restrictions, including limiting the age of users who could access social media platforms to children older than 15. He also called for his country to implement laws banning students from using cellphones in high schools, seeking to do so before the start of the 2026-2027 school year in France.
“The brains of our children and adolescents are not for sale,” Macron said in January to CNN’s French affiliate BFMTV. “Their emotions are not for sale or to be manipulated, whether by American platforms or Chinese algorithms.”
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“We are banning social media for under-15s, and we are going to ban mobile phones in our high schools,” Macron said. “I believe this is a clear rule – clear for our teenagers, clear for families, clear for teachers.”
Support for social media bans for teenagers has reportedly grown across the European Union. Members of the European Parliament have rallied around legislation that would prohibit children under 16 from accessing social media.
“To help parents manage their children’s digital presence and ensure age-appropriate online engagement, Parliament proposes a harmonised EU digital minimum age of 16 for access to social media, video-sharing platforms and AI companions, while allowing 13- to 16-year-olds access with parental consent,” read a November press release from European Parliament.
