(Mexico City) Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said he was opposed to social media regulation on Monday after Facebook was accused of putting profits ahead of the safety of the billions of people who use its services.
“I believe that we must be careful that there is no regulation, that we trust the citizen and that we self-control”, declared the leader of the left during his daily press conference, questioned specifically about the case of Facebook.
For Mr. Lopez Obrador, regulation of this network and others could degenerate into “censorship”. He recalled that for this reason, he has always opposed the suspension of the accounts of former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
“I am for there to be no censorship, so that no one sees his freedom of expression limited, even that excesses are accepted, I prefer that to censorship”, defended the head of state which has 8.2 million Twitter followers and 7.7 million Facebook friends.
“An economic enterprise, however powerful it may be […] cannot silence the president of a country, that cannot be, it is an attack, an attack on freedom ”, repeated the Mexican president.
Mr. Lopez Obrador agreed that these issues should be discussed, on the premise that “the right” to express oneself freely “must be safeguarded”.
“We must try to make people aware of this, that it is possible to argue, that it is possible to debate without aggression, without violence, and that it is not necessary to regulate, because who regulates? In the case of networks, when there is censorship, it happens that injustices are committed, ”he added.
Facebook is in turmoil after a series of revelations indicating that the company is not devoting enough resources to contain disinformation and that it puts its profits before its users.
In the United States, calls have been made for more government regulation.
The European Parliament is currently examining a Digital Services Act (DSA) regulation. The latter wants to prohibit platforms from using algorithms to promote false information and dangerous speeches, with for the most important of them an obligation of means to moderate the content.