Yolanda Díaz denounces “Musk and Durov’s threats” to “democracy in Spain” at Harvard

Eduardo González The Second Vice President of the Government and Minister of Labor and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, denounced at Harvard University the “threats” made by entrepreneurs Elon Musk, of the social network X, and Pavel Durov, of Telegram, to “democracy” and to the “government elected at the polls” in Spain. Díaz made these remarks on Wednesday during a conference at Harvard Law School (Massachusetts), entitled “Two Promises to Those Who Work: Voice and Ownership. On the Proposed Path to the Government of Spain to Advance Democracy in the Workplace,” during her working visit to the United States. The Vice President addressed university professors, researchers, graduate students, union leaders, experts in labor law and public policy, and stakeholders in the fields of labor and the social economy in the United States. During her speech, the Vice President referred to the mass message sent this Wednesday to Spanish users by Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on the messaging app: “The owner of Telegram has just threatened our country, saying that the Spanish government is limiting digital rights worldwide. We are going to defend democracy, break up digital monopolies, and regulate; they are not in charge.” She also referred to the owner of the social network X, Elon Musk: “He is also threatening democracy in Spain. The owner of a digital platform cannot believe himself to be above a government elected by the people. We are going to show him that in Spain, the Spanish people are in charge.” “A sign we’re riding on” Last Tuesday, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced, during the opening of the World Governments Summit in Dubai, five legislative and regulatory measures by the Spanish government to protect minors and strengthen controls on social media against disinformation, hate speech, and the lack of protection of personal data and material. In response to the measures announced by Pedro Sánchez, billionaire Elon Musk wrote on his social network, X, that "dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain." Meanwhile, the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, also wrote on X: "Whatever they do on social media to censor us, and to censor young people, they won't find any way to stop us from speaking to all Spaniards on equal terms." “Let the techno-oligarchs bark, Sancho, it’s a sign we’re riding on,” Pedro Sánchez simply wrote on social media, paraphrasing a popular saying (“they bark, therefore we ride”) erroneously attributed to Don Quixote. For his part, the Deputy Secretary for Regional and Local Coordination and Electoral Analysis of the People’s Party (PP), Elías Bendodo, stated that his party had already proposed limiting social media use for minors months ago and denounced the government for “always playing catch-up.” “There was no need for him to go to Dubai to announce a measure that the main party in Spain had already proposed,” he added. Sánchez’s proposals In his speech, the Prime Minister analyzed the “lack of governance in content control” and the impunity surrounding violations of the law, the spread of disinformation and hate speech, and the lack of protection for personal data and materials, which represent “serious dangers” to rights and freedoms and “particularly distort the lives of minors who have integrated the use of social media into their daily routines.” Therefore, Sánchez announced five legislative and regulatory measures aimed at digital platforms, including a ban in Spain on access to social media for those under sixteen, requiring digital platforms to implement effective age verification systems. Furthermore, through a reform of the law, Pedro Sánchez also proposed ending the impunity of executives so that they are legally responsible for infractions committed on their platforms if they fail to remove content that violates the law or is considered hateful. He also announced that manipulating algorithms and amplifying illegal content will be classified as crimes. In defense of digital sovereignty, and appealing to “zero tolerance” for any form of coercion, he reported that the government will work with the public prosecutor's office to explore ways to investigate potential legal violations by Grok, TikTok, and Instagram. Furthermore, to combat the amplification of hate speech, President Sánchez announced the creation of a tracking, quantification, and traceability system to establish a “Hate and Polarization Footprint” and expose the permissiveness of digital platforms that fuel this type of content, whose impact is contributing to greater social division.

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