Tag: france

Macron Calls Online Free Speech Argument “Pure Bullshit”

European governments framing social media bans for minors as child protection are quiet about what those bans actually require: identity checks for everyone. Every adult who wants to use Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube in France, Spain, or Germany would need to verify their real-world identity to access the platform. Anonymity, one of the oldest protections for dissenting speech, goes with it.

That’s the context Emmanuel Macron left out when he called free speech online “pure bullshit” in New Delhi on Wednesday.

The French president was addressing companies and their American backers as European governments push social media restrictions, as well as curbs on “hate speech,” a move the Trump administration has criticized as censorship.

Macron’s counterargument is based on algorithmic opacity. “Having no clue about how their algorithm is made, how it’s tested, trained, and where it will guide you, the democratic consequences of this bias could be huge,” he said.

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11 arrested in France for beating death of far-right student

 French police investigating the beating of a far-right militant who died of brain injuries have arrested 11 people, prosecutors said Wednesday, in a case adding fuel to long-standing divides in French politics ahead of presidential elections in 2027.

Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old student described as a fervent nationalist, died in a hospital on Saturday.

He was beaten two days earlier by a group of people in the city of Lyon, in fighting that erupted between far-left and far-right supporters on the margins of a student meeting where a far-left lawmaker, Rima Hassan, was a keynote speaker.

An autopsy found that Deranque suffered a fractured skull and fatal brain injuries, according to Lyon’s prosecutor, Thierry Dran.

He launched the police investigation for homicide and other potential criminal charges.

Dran’s office said police detained a man and a woman on Wednesday morning, with nine other people taken into custody on Tuesday night.

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French Patriots Turn Out in Huge Numbers Demanding Justice for 23-Yr-Old Conservative Quentin Who Was Murdered by Antifa Thugs

Thousands of French patriots turned out in Paris on Sunday demanding justice for 23-year-old Quentin who was murdered by Antifa thugs this weekend.

On Friday, The Gateway Pundit’s Robert Semonsen reported that young French nationalist activist is fighting for his life after a brutal street assault in the city of Lyon that has reignited national outrage over radical-left wing political violence and the climate of impunity surrounding self-described “anti-fascist” groups.

The victim, a 23-year-old man identified as Quentin, remains in critical condition—and is said to be braindead—following a savage attack that took place on the evening of February 12.

The violence erupted on the margins of a conference held at Sciences Po Lyon featuring Rima Hassan, a European Parliament member aligned with the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI). It’s worth noting that weeks ago, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during a campaign event, said that his party is the party of “The Great Replacement.”

The event, focused on EU relations and the Middle East, was warmly received inside the venue, while tensions simmered outside.

According to various accounts from eye witnesses at the scene, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Female protesters on the nationalist-feminist side were allegedly surrounded, pushed, and physically attacked, with at least one 19-year-old woman reportedly strangled and dragged during the initial confrontation.

Quentin, who was part of an informal security detail tasked with protecting the women, intervened as the group attempted to disperse. He and another man were then allegedly followed through nearby streets by a group of masked attackers.

What followed, witnesses say, was a coordinated ambush. The two men were set upon in a quiet area of Lyon’s 5th arrondissement, where Quentin was knocked to the ground and repeatedly kicked after his head struck the pavement.

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French police raid Arab World Institute in Paris as Epstein fallout widens

French police searched the Arab World Institute in Paris on Monday as part of a probe into its former head, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, and his links to late convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors said.

France’s National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) said in a statement that the Arab World Institute was among several locations being raided.

Prosecutors this month opened a preliminary investigation of Lang and his daughter Caroline on suspicion of tax fraud following the release of documents on Epstein in the U.S.

Lang, who was culture minister under late Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, resigned this month from the Arab World Institute, which he had led since 2013.

He has said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes despite corresponding with him between 2012 and 2019, 11 years after the financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Epstein died in prison by suicide in 2019.

The Institute, which is overseen by France’s foreign ministry, said it could not immediately comment on the police action.

Both Jack and Caroline Lang have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and receiving financial benefits from Epstein. Their lawyer Laurent Merlet told French broadcaster BFMTV this month that “there was no movement of funds”.

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Macron’s AI Clown Show: Europe’s Digital Dilemma

The European Union has lost its place in the global race for artificial intelligence. In a single tweet on platform X, France’s President Emmanuel Macron inadvertently outlined the convoluted situation while simultaneously revealing his personal emotional fragility.

The leading representatives of the European Union like to present themselves as emotionless technocrats. Maintaining the greatest possible distance from citizens, they execute their agenda of societal transformation toward what they understand as a net-zero transformation economy. 

This ostentatious distance from the citizenry acts as a simulacrum of power, which, in politicians like Emmanuel Macron, often veers into the caricatural.

Macron’s striking presence in foreign affairs—whether regarding the Ukraine war or recurring provocations toward the United States—correlates with his aggressive censorship policy toward his own population. A president without a people, steering his minority government through a budgetary crisis that brings France ever closer to the fiscal abyss.

In Macron’s persona, the European misstep is condensed: economically failed, deeply unpopular among his own people, geopolitically essentially irrelevant—and yet imbued with lofty, messianic plans. 

This performative play of power, coupled with hardly disguised impotence and incompetence, inevitably produces an effect that can be described as clownish. It is the expression of a political style that can no longer reconcile claim with reality—and thus delivers less leadership than a tragicomic performance.

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Young French Conservative Activist Left Brain-Dead After Violent Antifa Attack in Lyon

A young French nationalist activist is fighting for his life after a brutal street assault in the city of Lyon that has reignited national outrage over radical-left wing political violence and the climate of impunity surrounding self-described “anti-fascist” groups.

The victim, a 23-year-old man identified as Quentin, remains in critical condition—and is said to be braindead—following a savage attack that took place on the evening of February 12.

The violence erupted on the margins of a conference held at Sciences Po Lyon featuring Rima Hassan, a European Parliament member aligned with the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI). It’s worth noting that weeks ago, LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during a campaign event, said that his party is the party of “The Great Replacement.”

The event, focused on EU relations and the Middle East, was warmly received inside the venue, while tensions simmered outside.

Demonstrators from Collectif Némésis, a nationalist feminist group known for opposing mass immigration and Islamist influence, gathered to protest Hassan’s appearance. The activists unfurled banners criticizing what they describe as the “Islamo-left,” drawing immediate hostility from black clad, masked counter-protesters.

According to various accounts from eye witnesses at the scene, the situation deteriorated rapidly. Female protesters on the nationalist-feminist side were allegedly surrounded, pushed, and physically attacked, with at least one 19-year-old woman reportedly strangled and dragged during the initial confrontation.

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Head of prestigious French institute resigns over Epstein links

Jack Lang, the president of France’s Arab World Institute, has offered his resignation after his past contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein triggered a money laundering probe at home, according to several media outlets.

The move followed the announcement on Friday by French prosecutors that they opened a preliminary investigation into Lang – a veteran French politician who has served as culture and education minister – and his daughter Caroline for alleged “aggravated tax fraud laundering.”

The probe was launched after revelations by investigative outlet Mediapart into possible financial links to Epstein. The files do not suggest that Lang was involved in the late financier’s sexual crimes.

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France’s Raid on X Opens New Front in Europe’s War Over Online Speech

French prosecutors staged a morning raid at the Paris offices of social media platform X, part of a criminal investigation coordinated with Europol.

The operation, launched in 2025, targets allegations ranging from the alleged distribution of sexual deepfakes to algorithmic manipulation.

The cybercrime division in Paris is exploring whether X’s automated systems may have been used in an “organized structure” to distort data or suppress information.

The alleged offenses are as follows:

  • Denial of crimes against humanity (Holocaust denial)
  • Fraudulent extraction of data from an ⁠automated data processing system ​by an organized group
  • Falsification of the operation ‌of ‌an automated data processing system by an organized group
  • Defamation of a person’s image (deepfakes of ​sexual nature, including minors)
  • Operating of an illegal online platform by an organized group

Prosecutors have now summoned Elon Musk and former CEO Linda Yaccarino for questioning in April. “Summons for voluntary interviews on April 20, 2026, in Paris have been sent to Mr. Elon Musk and Ms. Linda Yaccarino, in their capacity as de facto and de jure managers of the X platform at the time of the events,” the office said.

Yaccarino, who left in mid-2025, might find herself reliving the company’s most volatile months, when X faced regulatory crossfire across the continent for refusing to comply with what it called political censorship demands.

The case actually began with two complaints in January 2025, including one from French lawmaker Eric Bothorel, who accused X of narrowing “diversity of voices and options” after Musk’s takeover.

Bothorel cited “personal interventions” in moderation decisions, a line that seemed more about ideology than algorithms.

As the investigation grew, prosecutors took interest in Grok, X’s AI system, which allegedly produced “Holocaust denial content” and “sexual deepfakes.” The Paris prosecutor’s office soon announced it was examining “biased algorithms.”

Musk called the whole affair a “politically-motivated criminal investigation,” and considering Europe’s recent appetite for speech regulation, it’s not a stretch to see why he’d think that.

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Former French Senator Joël Guerriau on Trial for Drugging Female National Assembly Member To Sexually Abuse Her

Have the romantic French turned into a nation of date-rapists?

France has an epidemic of ‘drug-facilitated sexual assault’, and it seems not even powerful women in elected office are safe from it.

A former senator is on trial for allegedly slipping MDMA into the drink of a female member of the National Assembly to sexually abuse her.

Associated Press reported:

“Joël Guerriau, 68, is accused of putting the drug MDMA, known as ecstasy, in a glass of champagne he served to lawmaker Sandrine Josso in November 2023. He has admitted serving her a drink spiked with MDMA but says it was an accident.”

Sandrine Josso has been outspoken about the case, leading to Guerriau’s two-day trial that started today (26).

He has been charged with the ‘use and possession of drugs’, and with ‘secretly administering a discernment-altering substance to commit a rape or sexual assault’.

“According to Josso, a centrist member of parliament, the center-right senator invited her to his apartment in Paris for what she believed to be a reelection celebration. Josso had known Guerriau for years and considered him as a friend.

Josso said she started feeling unwell quickly after drinking champagne, with heart palpitations and her body shivering. She headed out, took a taxi and went to a hospital, where a substantial quantity of MDMA was found in a blood test, far higher than the level typical of recreational use.”

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Failing French President Macron Wants To Ban Under-15 Kids From Social Media – And He Wants It Done Fast

France’s Emmanuel Macron is a ‘leader’ in the quest for a cause.

A failing lame-duck President polling in the 16-18% range, fresh from the historic low of 11% approval, he needs some issue that will help him back into the good graces of the French voters who don’t trust him, and believe he has been a failure as head of state.

Usually, Macron tries to find it in ‘global warming’, but that con is not working anymore – so he tried to be a ‘warrior leader’ meddling in Ukraine, and lately sent an astonishing 15 soldiers from the 27th Mountain Infantry Brigade to Greenland.

What a Napoleon, right?

Now, it appears that ‘Le Petit Roi’ has found a new cause that can make him appear in a positive light for part of the French society.

Macron is pushing his government to ban children under the age of 15 from social media and – what’s more – he wants to ‘fast-track the legal process’.

He means to ensure that the ban can enter into force in September, at the start of the next school year.

CBS News reported:

“In a video released late Saturday by French broadcaster BFM-TV, Macron said he had asked his government to initiate an accelerated procedure so that the proposed legislation can move as quickly as possible and be passed by the Senate in time.

‘The brains of our children and our teenagers are not for sale’, Macron said. ‘The emotions of our children and our teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated. Neither by American platforms, nor by Chinese algorithms’.”

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