Madrid hosts this week the “first Summit against Hate” amidst the war against tech giants

Eduardo González Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will inaugurate the “First International Summit Against Hate” this Wednesday in Madrid. The summit will address disinformation and the spread of hostile messages on digital platforms amidst a confrontation with major tech companies over the government's measures to protect minors and strengthen social media controls. According to the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, the event's organizer, the summit will bring together representatives from the main social media platforms to learn about the measures and data related to the control and removal of hate speech. The meeting “will emphasize the need to create safeguards to address the impact and risks that Artificial Intelligence poses to the defense of human rights, as well as the influence of disinformation in the spread of hostile messages,” the Ministry added. Among the participants is the High Representative for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (and former Spanish Foreign Minister), Miguel Ángel Moratinos. Also participating are the Minister for Digital Transition and Public Administration, Óscar López, who will address governance and international cooperation in this area; the Ministers for Youth and Children, Sira Rego, and for Equality, Ana Redondo, who will analyze the spread of hate speech on social media; and the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, who will close the summit. The topics of the meeting include digital harassment against individuals and groups, the relationship between freedom of expression, security, disinformation, and the defense of human rights and democracy, the misuse of technology and AI in relation to fundamental rights, and the relationship between technology, platforms, and best practices. In this last area, the Senior Manager of Institutional Relations for TikTok in Spain and Portugal, Ana Abade, will speak. Google's Director of Institutional Relations and Public Policy, Miguel Escassi; and Meta's Director of Public Policy for Spain and Portugal, José Luis Zimmermann. Musk and Durov against Sánchez The summit will be held just one month after Pedro Sánchez announced, during the opening of the World Governments Summit in Dubai, the government's five legislative and regulatory measures to protect minors and strengthen control over social media against disinformation, hate speech, and the lack of protection of personal data and material. Among these measures are a ban in Spain on access to social media for minors under sixteen, a reform of the law to make executives legally responsible for infractions committed on their platforms, the criminalization of algorithm manipulation and the amplification of illegal content, and the creation of a tracking, quantification, and traceability system to establish a "Hate and Polarization Footprint" and expose the permissiveness of digital platforms. In response to these measures, billionaire Elon Musk wrote on his social network X that “Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and a traitor to the people of Spain,” and Russian magnate Pavel Durov, owner of Telegram, sent a mass alert to the more than ten million users of his platform in Spain, denouncing the government's attempt to establish a “surveillance state” and “censorship.” Meanwhile, the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, accused the government of trying to “censor young people.” “Let the techno-oligarchs bark, Sancho, it’s a sign that we’re riding,” Pedro Sánchez wrote on social media, paraphrasing a popular saying (“they bark, therefore we ride”) erroneously attributed to Don Quixote. “Insecurity isn’t generated by a foreign minor under 14 years old in the United States or Spain; insecurity is…” "These tycoons, who think the world belongs to them, are causing this," the Prime Minister declared during a press conference in New Delhi on the occasion of his official visit to India.

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