The French government on Wednesday declared war on X and on Elon Musk, directly threatening to ban the platform. Speaking on France Inter, Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s Foreign Minister, accused Musk of allowing X to become a platform for interference undermining European ‘public discourse’. Barrot demanded that the European Commission act with ‘the utmost firmness’. He has repeatedly complained to Brussels and said that if the EU fails to act, potentially by banning X outright, France may demand the power to protect itself. ‘The debate on public platforms,’ he declared, ‘cannot be outsourced to unregulated social networks controlled by billionaires.’
Make no mistake – this isn’t about interference or democracy. It’s about control. The French government is panicking. It’s losing the information war, and it knows it. Musk and his platform threaten the state’s ability to dictate the narrative. President Macron and his government can see all too well the tussle in Britain between Starmer and Musk, and they’re horrified. France has been leading Europe’s charge for censorship for years, building mechanisms like the Loi Avia against hateful content, and pushing for the Digital Services Act (DSA), which exports its control-obsessed model to the entire EU. Now, faced with a platform it can’t dominate, France sees this as a last stand.
The French government’s crusade to control speech has long been cloaked in the language of safety and democracy. The Loi Avia, introduced in 2020, forced platforms to remove ‘hateful content’ within 24 hours or face massive fines. France then strong-armed Brussels into adopting the DSA, which centralised these rules and extended their reach across Europe. But as lofty as the rhetoric about protecting democracy sounds, this is really about suppressing dissent and controlling narratives. The French government seems to have no problem at all with large swathes of the French media being controlled by French billionaires. Could it be because those billionaires are friendly to them? Now, as Elon Musk resists the pressure to censor his platform, France is discovering the limits of its reach.
The cracks in this narrative become even clearer when you look at Barrot’s vague warnings about ‘interference threats.’ What interference? The only interference France fears is its own inability to control what’s said online. X represents everything Paris despises: a free-for-all of competing narratives that can’t be neatly packaged or suppressed. Barrot’s demand for ‘the utmost firmness’ from Brussels is a plea for help – a signal that France, once the architect of Europe’s censorship regime, feels its grip slipping.
For Elon Musk, this is just another chapter in a long history of battles against regulators: from the SEC in the US to a Brazilian judge who demanded he remove certain accounts. It’s a pattern: Musk uses these fights to galvanize public opinion, turning himself into a symbol of free speech and exposing the overreach of his opponents.
The French Foreign Minister, for all his bluster, is playing right into Musk’s hands. The French government is trying to frame this as a fight to defend democracy, but Musk knows how to flip the script. He’s already made himself the face of resistance to censorship. If France thinks threatening X with a ban will intimidate Musk, they haven’t been paying attention. Musk thrives on conflict. The more dramatic the confrontation, the more he benefits.
This is why my money is on Musk. Not only has he played – and won – this game before, but he’s also positioned to take this fight global. With Donald Trump returning to the White House, Musk has a powerful ally. The Trump administration is already hostile to Europe’s regulatory overreach. Musk will argue that Europe’s censorship agenda isn’t just bad for democracy – it’s bad for American tech and innovation.
France’s ultimatum is not a show of strength, it’s a desperate move by a government that knows it’s losing control. Barrot’s rhetoric may sound tough, but the reality is fragile. France cannot unilaterally ban X without undermining the EU’s collective framework, and it cannot afford to lose the battle over narrative control. If Brussels hesitates, Paris looks weak. If Brussels acts, Musk will leverage the conflict, with public opinion and the Trump administration behind him.
In the end, this is not just a battle over X – it’s a battle over the future of free speech in Europe. France’s agenda for censorship is clear, and it has spent years building the tools to enforce it. But Musk has a way of turning such threats into opportunities. Barrot may think he’s calling the shots, but Musk is positioning himself to win not just this fight, but the broader war over free expression. France is panicking, but Musk is thriving. As this showdown unfolds, it’s Musk who is poised to come out ahead.