French President Emmanuel Macron has called the control of social networks “new violence”. He noted that the freezing of accounts of former US President Donald Trump on social networks is not in line with the principles of democracy. The French leader announced this on Thursday, February 4, at an online conference of the Atlantic Council.
“This is not a democratic answer. I don’t want to live in a democracy where the key decisions, the decisions to sometimes mute your microphone, are made by a private player, a private social network. I want it to be decided by law or your representative, by decisions, instructions, democratically discussed and approved by democratic leaders, ”France 24 quotes him.
According to him, social networks have deprived Trump and his supporters of the opportunity to express their point of view. Macron called the actions of social media “the new violence in our democracies.”
Earlier, on February 2, White House press secretary Jen Psaki outlined the position of the new US administration on the freezing of Trump’s accounts. She noted that the decision to block was made by the companies themselves. According to Psaki, US President Joe Biden has repeatedly advocated reducing the use of “hate speech” in social networks.
It became known on January 8 that Trump’s Twitter account had been permanently blocked. According to the administration of the social network, the reason for this decision was the risk of incitement to violence after the storming of the Capitol by his supporters on January 6. In addition to this, the leadership of Twitter promised to deactivate any page on the social network that Trump will use.
After that, the page of the electoral headquarters of the politician was frozen because of the publication of his statement, in which he stressed that Twitter would not silence him. The social network immediately deleted this post. Also, his accounts were blocked by social networks Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitch.