Elon Musk performed in front of 3,600 “tech” fans in Paris. The eccentric and controversial boss of Tesla and SpaceX held a conference this Friday, June 16 in the afternoon, at the VivaTech show. The opportunity for Elon Musk to defend his strategy on Twitter and display his ambitions for Neuralink.
Musk rejects Twitter ‘censorship’ over EU rules
The billionaire refused the idea of ”censorship” and defended again the principle of “freedom of expression” on the social network he owns, in response to questions about its compliance with the rules of regulation of the EU and on cyberbullying. Questioned by the general manager of Orange Christel Heydemann, the American billionaire kicked into touch and was content to affirm that Twitter respected the laws of each country.
In passing, he admitted that he had paid too much for the micro-blogging site. “If I’m so smart, why did I pay so much for it?” he quipped, when he paid 44 billion dollars for this operation.
While the boss of Orange abruptly challenged him on the reasons why Twitter has just left the European Union’s code of good conduct on disinformation, Elon Musk replied: if “someone who says something you don’t like” is blocked, “it’s only a matter of time before censorship turns against you”.
“Freedom of expression matters,” insisted Elon Musk, known for his libertarian positions on this subject. “We need to have as much freedom of speech as the laws of different countries allow us,” he added, “and it doesn’t seem fair to me to say that Twitter goes beyond the laws” on the subject. .
“We do not promote offensive tweets”, he also defended himself, repeating that “Twitter should be a positive force for civilization” “If you are harassed, it’s a bad experience,” he said. recognized, however.
At the end of 2022, European Commissioner Thierry Breton had ordered Twitter, on pain of a fine of 6% of its turnover, to control its content more and to respect the DSA (Digital Services Act) on the regulation of major platforms, which will apply in the coming months.
In late May, when Elon Musk kicked Twitter out of the EU’s code of practice on disinformation, French Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot in turn threatened to “ban” Twitter.
A first human of brain implants from 2023?
Elon Musk has also announced that he wants to equip “this year” a first human being with neural implants from his company Neuralink, whose technology has just been authorized in the United States.
“We hope that, later this year, we will do our first implantation of a chip in humans, for someone who has a form of quadriplegia”, detailed the billionaire, questioned by a child and his father, during of this question-and-answer session. “I want to reassure anyone who may be scared off by Neuralink. It’s going to be a pretty slow process,” he added.
Neuralink, a start-up created by Elon Musk, received approval from US health authorities at the end of May to test its brain implants on humans. By housing chips in human brains, the multi-billionaire’s goal is to make brains and computers communicate directly. The medium-term goal is to help people who are paralyzed, suffering from spinal cord injuries or suffering from neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.