French president wants to ban online anonymity.
QUICK FACTS:
- French President Emmanuel Macron has taken a firm stance against U.S.-based social media platforms, according to ReMix News.
- The French leader has come out and criticized what he calls the addictive and harmful impact of social media, and Facebook specifically.
- In addition to getting rid of Facebook, Macron wants to ban online anonymity, as BFM TV reports.
- In an interview with Le Point weekly, the French politician offered a plan to dismantle digital platforms to end the power of Facebook.
- Macron mentioned the recent news that billionaire Elon Musk has bought a significant portion of Twitter in his comments, saying that he and Zuckerberg are attempting to control the world in a way that is not “democratic.”
MORE OF MACRON’S COMMENTS:
- “First there is the subject of social media. Many of them are American today. We must not hesitate and consider the dismantling of those that are a monopoly, and to regulate them,” Macron declared. “On social media, we can kill reputations, spread fake news, push people to suicide.”
- “When you read what Mark Zuckerberg thinks, for example, or even Elon Musk, who became a shareholder of Twitter, and who is a libertarian, you realize that they also have a vision of the world. But a society formed this way is not always democratic,” he warned.
- “In a democratic society, there should be no anonymity. You cannot walk around in the street with a mask. Because they are hidden behind a nickname on the internet, people let themselves say the worst things,” Macron went on to say.
BACKGROUND:
- Currently, Macron is facing Marine Le Pen in the second round of the elections, slated to take place on April 24.
- The current French leader has promised France digital sovereignty despite countries like the United States and China having a stronghold on technology.
