SÁNCHEZ DECLARES WAR ON BIG TECH: JAIL, BANS AND A CRACKDOWN ON ONLINE HATE
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has announced a sweeping digital crackdown that will shake Silicon Valley to its core. From next week, his government will unleash a tough new package of laws aimed at reining in social media giants and the damage they cause.
At the heart of the plan is a major legal shift: tech executives themselves could be held personally accountable for illegal activity taking place on their platforms. Sánchez also revealed that algorithmic manipulation the systems accused of boosting lies, abuse and extremism will become a criminal offence.
In a bold first, Spain will introduce a “hate and polarization footprint” to measure and expose how platforms profit from division and online hostility.
Most dramatically, social media will be banned for under-16s, with companies forced to use real age checks, not meaningless tick boxes.
Finally, prosecutors will investigate alleged violations by Grok, TikTok and Instagram signalling that no platform is too powerful to face the law.