French President Emmanuel Macron is attacking free speech and calling for increased European government censorship policies on U.S. Big Tech companies.
On Tuesday, at the Summit on European Digital Sovereignty, Macron sneered, “don't believe one second on this so-called free speech agenda… This is the Wild West, not free speech.” He conflated pornography and harmful content for children with speech that he claims prevents the “well-functioning of our democracies.” He touted censorship legislation and called out American social media companies specifically, urging European regulators to be “much more demanding.”
Macron began by making valid points about the need for parental supervision of teenage device use. He also criticized age-inappropriate content and secretive algorithms designed to feed young people negative and harmful content. But his comments quickly devolved into conflating free speech with the illegal content from “U.S. private providers or big Chinese companies” and insisting censorship was the solution to both.
The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) aims to regulate and suppress not only “illegal content” but also supposed “disinformation.” Macron boasted that the “DSA and our regulation that [is] still being implemented” can control content on American and Chinese platforms.
Macron then doubled down on his anti-free speech comments. “[I]f we want to protect our democracies and preserve the well-functioning of our democracies, let's regulate as well the content of th[ese] platform[s],” he urged. “Let's be much more, much more demanding. Because please, don't believe one second on this so-called free speech agenda.”
Macron further ignored the fact that content removal targets individual creators and instead he claimed that free speech is invalidated by platforms’ secrecy surrounding their algorithms. “This is the Wild West, not free speech. So let's be clear, if we want as well digital sovereignty, we will have to better protect our children, our teenagers, and our democratic space,” he pompously concluded.
Macron’s government has repeatedly demanded censorship from American companies. In July, X accused the French government of undermining free speech and refused to hand over data in an alleged criminal investigation. This followed a campaign in January when French politicians tried to ban X for not censoring certain political opponents.
French President Macron discussing more censorship on free speech because “for the children”.
— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) November 19, 2025
Instead of focusing on real issues people care about, he wants censorship so he can eliminate online criticism of his policies.
pic.twitter.com/mQV1V7FCZC
After a long legal battle, video platform Rumble became fully accessible in France again in October. The platform had defied a demand from a French government official insisting that the platform censor certain content. The French government also criticized Meta earlier this year when the paltform overhauled its fact-checking program.
American companies are also not the only targets of Macron’s censorship push. Telegram founder Pavel Durov said last year that the head of French intelligence had approached him asking that Telegram censor information about the Romanian election.
Free speech is under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
