The French president has demanded transparency from social media platforms on how their algorithms operate.
French President Emmanuel Macron has dismissed the arguments of social media platforms in favor of free speech as “pure bulls**t,” calling for total transparency in how algorithms shape online discourse.
Speaking in New Delhi on Wednesday, Macron argued that algorithmic bias carries “huge” democratic consequences, stating that people have “no clue about how the algorithm is made, how it is tested, how it is trained, and where it will guide you.”
“Some of them claim to be in favor of free speech. We are in favor of free algorithms – totally transparent,” he said. “Free speech is pure bulls**t if nobody knows how you are guided through this so-called free speech, especially when it is guided from one hate speech to another.”
Macron insisted on a “transparent road” and maintaining “public order” on social media, stating that “I want to avoid racist speech and hate speech.”
The remarks come amid rising tensions between the EU and US as President Donald Trump has made defending online speech a cornerstone of his foreign policy and has condemned Brussels’ attempts to regulate major social media platforms – most of which are based in the US.
US Vice President J.D. Vance last year accused European leaders of suppressing free expression, warning that future American support would depend on whether allies uphold fundamental values.
Late last year, Washington sanctioned five Europeans, including former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, for “coercing American platforms to punish American viewpoints.”
The US National Security Strategy also warns Europe of “civilizational erasure” due to its curbs on speech and “regulatory suffocation” of innovation, with Washington vowing to “cultivate resistance” to the continent’s trajectory.
The EU’s crackdown on social media has also drawn fierce criticism from tech leaders. Earlier this month, Telegram founder Pavel Durov declared France “not a free country” after authorities raided X’s Paris office.
“France is the only country in the world that is criminally persecuting all social networks that give people some degree of freedom (Telegram, X, TikTok…),” he wrote.
Elon Musk, whose platform was fined €150 million ($176 million) by the EU in December, has called the bloc a “bureaucratic monster” that should be abolished.
Macron let’s the mask slip.
“Free speech is bullshit”
They aren’t even trying to hide it anymore. pic.twitter.com/UjaeAW6bY4
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) February 18, 2026
Stop crying and make it hugely expensive for them to operate.
Oracle (Larry Ellison) bought tiktoks’ USA arm to sanitize its algorithm of anti Israel posts, same as Elon buying twitter, so Elon should shut his hole about free speech, he is a gatekeeper.
Yea, persecute free speach and let true criminals make the country unsafe.
That is the new norm in the EU .
Whats pure bullshit is any idea that Europe will ever be anything other than a dictatorship under the globalists….
Can’t help but think this is a further distraction from his cock in a frock husband.
Macaroni, the world is better off without you! Suck your husband’s macaroni and F off, or the guillotine shall get ya both.
Free speech is anything the left want to say, and hate speech is anything the left don’t want to hear!
See it’s not that everyone hates mass migration, shittier living standards, higher taxes, higher crime, higher rents, fewer jobs, lower wages and globalist politicians selling us out left right and centre.
It’s those damn algorithms!
“If we could just get control of THOSE, perhaps the people won’t want to construct guillotines anymore…”
What a slimy toad