Macron Blasts Social Media's Free Speech Defense as 'Bullshit'

Source: Bloomberg

French President Emmanuel Macron said the free speech defense of social media platforms is “pure bullshit,” pushing back against a key foreign policy goal of President Donald Trump.

European nations including the UK and Germany are weighing social media bans for minors, with regulators saying the services are harmful and addictive. That could have an impact on critical advertising dollars for companies including Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram and Facebook, Snap Inc., Elon Musk’s X, TikTok and Google’s YouTube.

The US has criticized such bans, saying they censor free speech. The US recently imposed visa bans on a former European official and activists for trying to police online hate speech, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio justifying the moves as pushback against the “global censorship-industrial complex.”

“Having no clue about how their algorithm is made, how it’s tested, trained and where it will guide you — the democratic consequences of this bias could be huge,” Macron said Wednesday in New Delhi. “Some of them claim to be in favor of free speech — OK, we are in favor of free algorithms — totally transparent,” Macron said. “Free speech is pure bullshit if nobody knows how you are guided to this so-called free speech, especially when it is guided from one hate speech to another.”

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-18/macron-blasts-social-media-s-free-speech-defense-as-bullshit