Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced sweeping plans at the World Government Summit in Dubai to hold social media executives criminally liable and restrict platform algorithms, prompting a sharp and profane response from X owner Elon Musk.
Sánchez outlined five measures in a speech, the implementation of which will begin next week.
“Dirty Sánchez is a tyrant and traitor to the Spanish people,” Musk wrote on X, with an explicit insult and a poop emoji.
Sánchez framed the proposals by describing social media as a lawless digital ecosystem, arguing that platforms have become a “failed state” where disinformation, hate speech and criminal activity flourish without accountability.
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Sánchez also appeared to take direct aim at Musk, criticizing the X owner for amplifying what he described as false claims about Spain’s immigration policies and allowing the spread of harmful content on the platform.
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Under the plan, Spain would first change its laws to make platform executives criminally liable for failing to remove illegal or hateful content, leaving executives open to possible prosecution.
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Elon Musk called Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez a “traitor” and “tyrant.” (Jose Luis Magana/AP)
Sánchez said governments must stop “turning a blind eye to the toxic content shared under their watch.”
Second, Spain would make the algorithmic manipulation and amplification of illegal content a new criminal offense, targeting both disinformation actors and the platforms whose systems promote their content for profit.
“Disinformation does not happen by itself,” Sánchez said. “It is created, promoted and spread by certain actors.”
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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has announced sweeping plans to hold social media executives criminally liable and restrict platform algorithms. (Frank Franklin II/AP Photo)
Third, Sánchez announced the creation of a “hate and polarization footprint,” a system to track and quantify how platforms fuel division and spread hatred, which could serve as a basis for future legal and financial sanctions.
“For too long, hate has been treated as invisible and untraceable,” Sánchez said. “Spreading hate must have a price.”
Fourth, Spain will ban access to social media for children under 16, requiring mandatory age verification systems that Sánchez says should act as real barriers, not simple checkboxes.
“Today our children are exposed to a space that they were never meant to navigate alone,” Sánchez said, describing social media as a realm of “addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation [and] violence.”
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Finally, Sánchez said his government will work with prosecutors to investigate alleged violations by Grok, TikTok and Instagram, promising zero tolerance and warning that Spain will defend its digital sovereignty against foreign interference.
“We are fighting back,” he said. “And we will continue to do so.”
