French President Macron meets with Elon Musk to address social media regulations

French President Emmanuel Macron met with billionaire Elon Musk to cap off his visit to the U.S. this week. 

Macron spent an hour talking with Musk, current CEO and owner of Twitter, and the pair discussed a number of topics, from green energy targets to concerns about content moderation on social media. 

“In accordance with our ambition to decarbonize and reindustrialize France and Europe, I discussed today with @elonmusk on future green industrial projects, in particular on the manufacture of electric vehicles and batteries,” Macron wrote on Twitter of the “clear and honest” talks. 

“Transparent user policies, significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech: efforts have to be made by Twitter to comply with European regulations,” Macron also wrote after the meeting. 

The pair met in New Orleans, marking the first French presidential visit to the city since 1976 and only the third since Charles de Gaulle’s famous visit in 1960. Macron already met with President Biden and lawmakers, including Kevin McCarthy, Thursday. 

“This state visit enables us to put France, and with France Europe, at the heart of the American agenda. That’s a good thing,” Macron told journalists in French, according to a translation from pool reporters. 

The focus on social media regulations has come into sharper focus following Musk’s purchase of the social media platform. The weeks following his takeover proved tumultuous, leading up to Musk suspending Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, and the release of internal communications regarding the report on Hunter Biden’s laptop.