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The Spanish government launched a new tool to measure and monitor hate speech across Instagram, TikTok, X, YouTube and Facebook, stepping up scrutiny over social media companies in the country.
During a speech in Madrid, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez argued the rise of harmful content online has amplified divisions in society. “Hatred is not born by spontaneous generation. It is cultivated and promoted,” he noted, warning “social networks have turned it into a weapon of mass polarisation.”
Sanchez flagged “what starts on the screen doesn’t always stay there”, revealing hate crimes in Spain have risen 41 per cent over the past decade.
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The HODIO (Footprint of Hatred and Polarisation in Spanish) tool will allow authorities to systematically analyse public content to track the presence, amplification and impact of hate speech across social media platforms.
The system will utilise AI-powered quantitative analysis with human reviews to identify violent or degrading speech. Results generated by the monitoring tool will be published publicly every six months, allowing citizens to see “who is blocking this content, who is looking the other way, and who is profiting from it”, Sanchez said. The goal is to improve transparency around how digital platforms respond to problematic online content.
Sanchez noted the initiative aims to make the scale of digital abuse visible. “Just as we talk about the carbon footprint to measure the environmental impact of an activity, this instrument seeks to measure the impact of digital violence,” he explained, adding, “When something is measured, it ceases to be invisible.”
The tool forms part of a broader government push aimed at tightening social media regulations across Spain. According to Sanchez, “the digital environment cannot be a space without rules” where “impunity is rewarded”.
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