French French journalists Pascal Clérotte and Thomas made on Wednesday (3) a French edition of Twitter Files, a series of reports that analyze internal social network communications before purchase by American businessman Elon Musk (who changed the name of the platform to X) in 2022.
The report about France was published on the civilization works website, an organization created and chaired by Michael Shellenberger, author of the first Twitter Files stories, which dealt with the United States and Brazil.
Clerotte’s report and Fazi accused France President Emmanuel Macron of using NGOs funded by the government to press the then Twitter with lawsuits.
Such actions were entered in 2020 by the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF), SOS Racism, J’accuse! and SOS homophobia, alleging the presence of tweets considered hatred on the social network.
The two journalists published in the report a message from October 2020, by a associate litigation, regulatory and competition director of Twitter, which claimed that the goal was to stain the image of the social network and not fight crimes on the platform.
“We were sued in spring by four NGOs, claiming that we are not doing enough to combat hate speech in France (and comparing us unfavorably with Facebook and others). They seek to appoint an expert to examine our denunciation and supervision systems. This case is about to portray Twitter as a dangerous press agent,” the director said.
Twitter Files states that these government -affiliated French NGOs have required special access to Twitter internal data and content moderation process.
The report also highlighted Macron’s insistence on contacting then Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, although pointing out that it is not known if this communication came to happen.
“To congratulate Twitter for its effort of electoral integrity [alegação do governo Macron para a tentativa de contato] – A pretext for obtaining a direct line of communication with Jack Dorsey -, a simple official letter, personally delivered to the company’s headquarters by the France Consul General in San Francisco, would have been enough. This can be seen as an attempt by the French President to personally influence US platform policies in France, ”Clérotte and Fazi wrote, who said they believe that if Dorsy’s phone number had been informed,” it was reported to French intelligence for monitoring. “
The report also addresses facts after the purchase of Twitter by Musk and accuses Macron of seeking to interfere with other countries through the Viginum Agency, created by the French President in July 2021 with the mission of “protecting French national interests from manipulating information conducted by foreigners.”
Clérotte and made as an example the cancellation of the first round of the December 2024 Romania presidential elections, in which the most voted candidate was Calin Georgescu, with Pro-Russian profile.
A viginum report pointed out an alleged interference with the Tiktok algorithm to artificially increase Georgescu’s visibility, and finally the first round was canceled by the Romania Constitutional Court. The decision was criticized by Musk.
“Far from the transparent and innocuous entity it intends to be, Viginum’s leadership suggests a more complex and potentially worrying performance. Viginum is not a purely defensive agency, but it is also an offensive tool for Emmanuel Macron’s aggressive foreign policy in Europe, mainly directed against Russia – and increasingly against the French people,” Clérotte and did.
