DPA
WASHINGTON
Social media platform Twitter will commit to eliminating terrorist and extremist content online, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
Macron met new Twitter owner Elon Musk on a visit to the US and had a “clear and honest discussion,” the French prime minister tweeted on Friday.
Macron said that Elon Musk confirmed Twitter’s participation in the Christchurch Call initiative launched after terrorist attacks in New Zealand. “There is no place for terrorist and violent extremist content anywhere,” Macron said.
Macron and Musk also spoke about “transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech,” Macron said.
“Efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” he added.
Since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, there have been widespread concerns that more hate speech and abuse could end up on the platform under his leadership and after the major job cuts he implemented.
Musk had raised such concerns himself with repeated criticism that Twitter had restricted freedom of speech on the platform too much.
Launched by Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in 2019, the Christchurch Call initiative saw world leaders team up with technology companies including Facebook, YouTube and Google, to tackle terrorist and extremist content online.
The initiative is named after the New Zealand city where a gunman killed 51 people in attacks on two mosques in 2019. He live-streamed the attacks on Facebook for 17 minutes before the social media company removed the stream, and clips from the video then spread rapidly online.
