Sánchez: “Social media has become a weapon of mass polarization”

Eduardo González The Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, has once again challenged the world's major technology companies with the launch of a new tool to measure the presence and impact of hate speech on digital platforms. He warned that “technology is power and politics” and that social media has become “a failed state without rules” and a “weapon of mass polarization” that must “be held publicly accountable for every piece of hateful content they allow.” Sánchez made this announcement on Wednesday, March 11, during his opening speech at the first Forum Against Hate, organized in Madrid by the Government, which analyzes the effects of hate speech and polarization on society. The Forum, which brings together national and international groups and specialists, as well as representatives from the main social media platforms, includes the participation of the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration and Government Spokesperson, Elma Saiz; the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo; the Minister of Youth and Childhood, Sira Rego; and the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Administration, Óscar López. According to Sánchez, hate “is not the exclusive domain of any one ideology,” but, “in today’s Spain, its use is completely asymmetrical, because for some it is their main electoral asset.” “They use hate not to crush ideas, but to crush those who defend those ideas with which they disagree; and believe me, I speak from personal experience,” he warned. “If hate is already dangerous, social media, unfortunately, has turned it into a weapon of mass polarization, a weapon easy to find and much easier to use, and extremely lucrative for some,” he warned. “Social media has reduced the cost of hating, because it only takes a click, almost always from the cowardly anonymity that reinforces impunity and aggression,” he denounced. Furthermore, she added, “social media allows hate to be channeled,” a hate that “generates business, polarizes, generates interaction, and the algorithm designers know it.” “For those who say that what we intend is censorship, we are not talking about uncomfortable opinions; on the contrary, we are talking about messages that, for example, compare people to plagues” and that lead to “dehumanization,” he stated. “What begins on a screen doesn't always stay there: in the last decade, hate crimes have increased by 41 percent, because when hate becomes normalized on the internet, it ends up seeping into our daily lives,” he asserted. According to Sánchez, the “consensus” that existed years ago to moderate content on platforms and avoid confusing “toxic discourse with freedom of expression” began to break down “when the techno-oligarchs decided to impose their political agenda on social media.” “Technology is politics, technology is power, and the techno-oligarchs know this very well,” he warned. “Therefore, these techno-oligarchs decided to impose their political agenda, reduced moderation teams, relaxed the rules, and the impact was absolutely immediate,” he continued. “After, for example, Elon Musk’s purchase of X, hate speech on that platform increased by 50 percent,” he asserted. The HODIO tool Faced with this situation, “we must act,” warned Pedro Sánchez, who recalled the five legislative and regulatory measures the Government announced a month ago during the opening of the World Governments Summit in Dubai to protect minors and strengthen controls on social media against disinformation, hate speech, and the lack of protection of personal data and material. In this context, Sánchez reported that a week ago, the State Attorney General's Office announced the opening of a criminal investigation to determine the possible responsibility of digital platforms in the spread and failure to remove certain content, “especially the dissemination of child pornography on social media and digital platforms.” The Prime Minister also announced the launch of 'HODIO: Footprint of Hate and Polarization,' a tool that will measure the presence, evolution, and reach of hate speech on digital platforms. “The objective is very clear: to bring hate out of the shadows, make it visible, and demand accountability from those who fail to act,” he warned. “The digital environment cannot be a space without rules,” stated Pedro Sánchez. “Today, social media is a failed state” where “there are no rules, no laws, and impunity is precisely what is rewarded,” he denounced. “Technology is power, technology is politics, and right now, politics of the worst kind is being practiced, the kind that only wants the law of the strongest, not the force of law,” he added. “That is why the digital environment cannot be a space without rules, and from now on, I believe that social media platforms will have to be publicly held accountable for every piece of hateful content they allow, and society as a whole will be able to be aware of the environments in which we interact, in which our children and young people move,” he declared. “Let the techno-oligarchs bark” The five legislative measures announced by Sánchez in Dubai include 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 magnates, who think the world belongs to them, are the cause of this,” declared the Prime Minister during a press conference in New Delhi on the occasion of his official visit to India.

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