the government threatens to block X (Twitter) in France

Pressure is mounting in Europe towards Elon Musk’s social network. Accused of allowing false information and hateful messages to spread too much, X (formerly Twitter) is now threatened with blocking in France.

Should we put an end to Elon Musk’s Twitter? Since the acquisition of the social network, which became X.com, the platform has greatly reduced the space left to the media, to the point of deliberately slowing them down, and has completely disengaged from its moderation duties.

It is this last point which now poses a real problem. Twitter has been accused for several days of having deliberately allowed propaganda videos and images of horror to spread following the terrorist attacks that occurred in Israel on October 7, 2023.

After Thierry Breton (European Commissioner for the Internal Market) called Europe to order against Elon Musk, it is France’s turn to warn the platform.

Completely block X in France?

It is to Jean-Noël Barrot, the Minister Delegate in charge of digital technology, that we owe this new reminder concerning the regulations put in place in Europe and in France. At the National Assembly, during a session of questions to the government, the minister made the following statement to Elon Musk: “ I want to tell him that it is the sovereign European people who decided to adopt this regulation on digital services, which provided for extremely heavy fines, which provided that banishment from the territory of the European Union was possible. And this will apply even to a platform like Xformerly Twitter, if it does not follow our rules. »

The threat is therefore clear, if X does not want to be banned from France, and more broadly from the European Union, the platform must absolutely comply with the DSA. The latter includes a whole section on the obligation of moderation on the part of online platforms.

Le Figaro reports that the government should bring together representatives of X in France, as well as other platforms like Facebook, TikTok or Snapchat to discuss the situation. ” L’objective is to firmly reiterate the government’s expectations regarding social networks. The latter have obligations to moderate illicit and violent content. we tell the newspaper from the ministries.

X’s response

The direction of published on the platform a general response addressed to Thierry Breton. The platform explains that it is “ committed to serving public debate » and that he “ there is no place on X for violent or terrorist organizations “. The platform estimates that it has moderated “tens of thousands of publications” in particular by adding the famous “ community notes that are visible under thousands of posts and have generated millions of impressions “.

On the Blue Sky social network, which has experienced strong growth in recent days, Thierry Breton acknowledges receipt of this response and indicates that the team in charge of the DSA will now analyze it and decide on the next steps to follow for the platform. Elon Musk.