the Grand Est region leaves X, Elon Musk's social network

“We can’t let ourselves be manipulated.” Lhe president of the Grand Est region, Franck Leroy, announced this Saturday to AFP “disable” his personal account and that of the institution on the social network “These are recent developments, both unacceptable positions taken by Elon Musk on certain European elections, particularly in Germany where he provides strong support for neo-Nazis, and algorithms put in place encouraging the development of fake news and conspiracy theories” which lead to this decision, explains Franck Leroy (Various right) to AFP.

According to him, “a tool intended to attack democracy, in our European conception of it”. “I hope that Europe and France will react very firmly. We cannot allow ourselves to be manipulated by communications tools in the hands of people who have little scrupulous regard for the truth, rights and freedoms.”he emphasizes. Owned by American billionaire Elon Musk, X is suspected of spreading false information and manipulating public debate in Europe. Several institutions or media have announced in recent weeks their departure from the social network or the cessation of their activity on their accounts.

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“Oriented algorithms”

The environmentalist mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, announced that she would leave the social network on January 20, the day of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump in the United States. “There are only troll farms that stir up and spread hatred”she lamented on Wednesday. “On this X in the hands of Elon Musk, #Metoo would never have existed”.

“This issue must concern us all, everyone must react”calls Franck Leroy. “We saw what happened in Romania with TikTok using oriented algorithms”. The Romanian Constitutional Court annulled the results of the first round of the presidential election in December, an extremely rare occurrence in the European Union, when far-right candidate Calin Georgescu came out on top to everyone's surprise.

The authorities accuse him of having benefited from an illicit support campaign on the TikTok platform. The European Commission announced the opening of an investigation. A new election will be organized in May. Franck Leroy specifies that he will “disable” his account and that of the region, and not delete them, in order to avoid “let other people take up our names to write in our place”. “But there will be no more information broadcast” on these accounts, he assures.